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Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell has provided support to a majority Latinx executive who may have mixed feelings about the Trump administration’s crackdown while publicly disciplining protesting immigrant attacks.
With a department-wide mission sent out earlier this week with protests surged earlier this week, McDonnell admitted he was “attached to community criticism or personal influence” of recent events and support that needed support.
“When federal immigration enforcement measures arise in a community that may reflect your own heritage, your neighborhood, or even your family’s story, it can create deeply painful conflict,” he wrote. “You may be in your uniform and doing your duties, but internally you are asked to maintain a complicated mix of emotions.”
It was a rare display of solidarity for the Chief, who rarely walked into controversial immigration debate. While serving as Los Angeles County Sheriff during Trump’s first term, McDonnell bristled criticism of his relationship with U.S. immigration and customs enforcement agencies.
In interviews and public comments, since becoming Chief McDonnell, he has tried to distance himself from his policy as a sheriff, allowing federal immigration authorities to operate freely and targeting people for the deportation of the nation’s largest prison system.
McDonnell and current LA County Sheriff Robert Luna emphasize that their department is not cooperating with federal authorities solely for immigration purposes.
In his own message to his own department this week, Luna thanked them for their “professionalism, determination, unwavering dedication” but only briefly mentioned the immigration debate.
“Despite the complexity of this situation, the growing political environment has made it even more challenging, but I trust and fully hope that we will continue to demonstrate the same level of excellence, consideration and integrity that has brought us ever,” Luna said.
Critics of recent local law enforcement actions note that racial bias is also a controversial issue, with LAPD officials attracting and shooting Latin Angeleno at a higher percentage than their overall population share.
Jim McDonnell was featured by Mayor Karen Bass at a press conference at City Hall on October 4, 2024, to serve as the new Chief LAPD.
(Ringo chiu/for the the the the alls
When asked about how he works to keep the city’s immigrant population safe, McDonnell often quotes Special Order 40. It was a groundbreaking policy in 1979 that prohibited LAPD officials from stopping them from asking about their citizenship status.
But Trump’s actions put the mayor and other local leaders in a troublesome position that they must defend federal officials and property.
In a recent message to department employees, McDonnell said he perceived “you may feel loyalty, frustrated, fear, or sometimes even embarrassing because the community mistakenly sees you as part of something you don’t.” He said he may not “see the nuances” of his LAPD job.
But publicly, the Chiefs gave a different, sometimes defensive tone.
At a hearing Tuesday, he refrained from city leaders who challenged relations with federal authorities.
In one exchange, City Council President Marquez Harris Dawson said he opposed the Chiefs to refer to agencies such as ICE, such as “law enforcement partners.”
“We don’t care what badges they’re riding or whose orders they’re taking. They’re not our partners,” Harris Dawson said.
Hugo Soto Martinez, a lawmaker who joined the council’s Public Safety Commission and represents the district from Echo Park to Hollywood, said in a statement from the times that Latino police officers were not surprised at the conflict.
“The families are falling apart, but I think almost all of them have undocumented parents or relatives, or at some point they are even undocumented themselves,” Soto Martinez said.
Art Placencia, a retired LAPD detective, remembered that he was a young police officer at work in the year when police arrested Latinos, simply because he believed they might deliver federal custody, believing they might be illegally in the country.
LAPD today is very different from when he was at work, he said. Due to the lawsuit and consent order, the once-low-than-white sector has grown to more than half of Latinos, more or less reflecting the city’s demographics. Latino officials are underestimated in the upper echelons of LAPD, but they are wielding more political influence than ever, Placencia said.
Placencia, former president of the Association of Latinx Executives, who once sued LAPD for discrimination in promotion decisions, said McDonnell has been caught up in detention that he must navigate the left-leaning politics of the city and support his ranks and file officers on the frontline against hostile crowds.
“He has to show that he is concerned about the officers and their feelings,” Placencia said. “They’re the ones that are there, they’re getting the rocks that were thrown at them.”
In previous interviews, McDonnell proudly spoke about his upbringing of immigrants – both of his parents moved from Ireland to Boston a year before he was born – and he said he understands the struggle to make a better life in America. But as a sheriff, he was also attacked by breaking his ranks with many other local politicians by opposing a “sanctuary state” bill that would prevent federal immigrant agents from hindering control of people released from California prisons.
McDonnell’s choice last November was a disappointment among some people in the department. He wanted Bass to choose Robert Arcos, a third-generation Mexican-American.
Reuben Lopez, a retired LAPD SWAT Li, said he was grateful that McDonnell decided to address the internal moral dilemma that some executives face.
As a young police officer, Lopez remembers similar feelings when he was at the forefront of a massive protest over Proposition 187.
“I remember that some of the command staff wanted to be more aggressive. These felt like they just wanted to exercise their rights to protest,” he said. “If we don’t have that trust in our communities, including our immigrant communities, we won’t get a collaborative approach to police a city of this size.”
Times staff writer Connor Sheet contributed the report.
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