Since Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore's announcement that he would be retiring at the end of February, questions have surfaced about who will be the next chief.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass spoke exclusively to KNX News’ Craig Fiegener about the qualities that she's looking for in the next LAPD chief.
“We want to do a national search. We want to get the top talent,” Bass said. “I'm not opposed at all to somebody from the department, but I do think it's important to do the search. And then one of the things that I hope to do is spend a lot of time with the officers. I want them to tell us, not who they want, but what they want to see in the next chief. I hope to give that information to the search committee.”
She also wants a community process and to ask the community the same thing.
“I want someone who wants to come in with an open mind who wants to restore the department in terms of the numbers,” Bass said.
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The numbers she referred to were the amount of sworn personnel, which has dropped below 9,000.
In her last budget, Bass said that for a city the size of Los Angeles, there needs to be at least 9,504 sworn officers to be considered safe.
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