The very excellent Jim McDonnell has been named Chief of the Long Beach Police Department. As you all remember, the longtime LAPD Assistant Chief recently short-listed for the job to replace Bill Bratton.
Long Beach is a complicated city of more than 367000 residents spread over 52-square-miles. It has the tenth busiest port in the world, a bunch of major corporations, and some very active gangs—so there will be plenty of challenges for a new chief.
In other words, the LBPD position will be feature loads of opportunities for McDonnell to put into practice his innovative ideas about policing. (He has long been a strong advocate of community policing and some of his concepts were adopted by Bratton. But there are still more ideas where that one came from.)
Go, Chief Jim! And kudos to Long Beach for being smart enough to pick him!
Andrew Blankstein (who like me is very distinguished this week. We are…um… distinguished, are we not, Andrew?) has more on the story.
What are his plans to go after top level drug dealers that do business in Long Beach? Gun runners, as well? I know the latter is federal jurisdiction but surely as a police officer who cares, he has plans to work in conjunction with the feds to cut off illegal drug and gun distribution at THE TOP as well as the bottom, doesn’t he?
Community policing, huh? You mean bored busy bodies now having an excuse to harass their law abiding neighbors by demanding conversation with them when they’re in a hurry, asking them invasive questions like where they’re going, and shining flood lights into their eyes when they’re tired and just got off of work? Great. Please tell me he has more innovative plans than that.
Dead link alert at the end of your post, Celeste.
Oh and dead comment alert at the head of this thread.
When I promoted in the early 90’s Community Based Policing was the new name they put on types of suppression efforts we were already engaged in but didn’t have a fancy name for. This concept actually has been around forever, starting in the late 80’s though it got a lot of press. I pretty much, as well as the others testing, had to know what this “new” type of policing was all about. We all actually knew, but we had to present our thoughts based on what direction the department was leading us and why.
Funny but I don’t recall ever being told to instruct people I had contacts with, when bringing my departments concept in this area to them, to “harass their law abiding neighbors by demanding conversation with them when they’re in a hurry, asking them invasive questions like where they’re going, and shining flood lights into their eyes when they’re tired and just got off of work”. Maybe I missed that meeting.
Community Based Policing was, and still is, an attempt to partnership with the average citizen, homeowner, business or whoever to elevate the quality of their life by alerting us to problems in their areas which are most always low income and crime ridden. Resources were brought into play included parks and recreation people, parole, probation, schools and community redevelopment just to name a few.
It was based on the old “broken window” theory and we and others worked to clean up many areas by getting the gangsters and thugs off the streets and into the jails where they belonged. In our area we had officers mentoring at risk youth ( even gang members that wanted to change..very few did) and developing recreational sports leagues to help them fill up time and stay away from gangs.
Guess that makes us the bad guys to many gang sympathizers and other reprobate types but I can live with that when I roll down a street that looks so nice and where kids can play outside now as compared to before our efforts when they hid inside to avoid trouble.
Sounds like Rob Thomas has the community policing concept confused with the Neighborhood Watch program.
Good for Gentleman Jim, he deserves it! What a loss for LAPD.
Beck made a big mistake moving him in favor of Moore(on).
This will be a huge loss for LAPD. The troops love McDonnell and he has so much support from so many community members all over the city. Jim actually has helped so many low income areas where gangs and drugs were infested. Just a little talking with his down to earth demeanor won so many people over. I remember a meeting where the people were yelling and shouting about LAPD. After McDonnell spoke through an interpeter, they were calm and their issues were heard. I found out later McDonnell had kept in contact with the main guy and made sure the problems were resolved. Only a great man like McDonnell who has the highest integrity and truly cares about anyone no matter who they are. HE’s going to be sorely missed.
Common Sense, I think you’re dead right.
Rob, in my experience, Neighborhood Watch—which is what you’ve described— is often peopled by folks who were not terribly well liked in middle school because they were always currying favor with the teacher, and not in a good way. I’m generalizing in a mean-ish fashion, and I know there are exceptions….. In any case, that’s not at all what is meant by community policing. Sure Fire has pretty much nailed it with his explanation. To the degree that it has been reinstituted in LA, it’s done only good. We simply need more of it.
Gava Joe, which link? The last two work for me….
Sure Fire Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Community Based Policing was, and still is, an attempt to partnership with the average citizen, homeowner, business or whoever to elevate the quality of their life by alerting us to problems in their areas which are most always low income and crime ridden.
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LOL. What? Elevate the quality of citizens’ (I presume) lives by alerting “you” to problems? I’m sorry but that doesn’t make any sense.
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It was based on the old “broken window†theory and we and others worked to clean up many areas by getting the gangsters and thugs off the streets and into the jails where they belonged.
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That sounds like policing, actually. Where does the “community” part come in?
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Guess that makes us the bad guys to many gang sympathizers
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What is a “gang sympathizer”?
# Gava Joe Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Oh and dead comment alert at the head of this thread.
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Cheer up.
Common Sense Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Sounds like Rob Thomas has the community policing concept confused with the Neighborhood Watch program.
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No, what it sounds like is that they gave the neighborhood watch program a new p.c. name.
# Janet Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:57 pm
I remember a meeting where the people were yelling and shouting about LAPD. After McDonnell spoke through an interpeter….
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LOL. Sounds like he was really down to earth and well spoken. I think they were cheering his interpreter.
Rob Thomas says
No, what it sounds like is that they gave the neighborhood watch program a new p.c. name.
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No, what it sounds like is you can’t admit when you’re wrong.
Robbie is nothing more than a shill for gangsters and other thugs. His stupidity is amusing though. He knows nothing about police work, corrctions or anything else. His inability to differentiate between two very different police type concepts shows he not only is simple minded, but not man enough to admit when he’s wrong. His hate for all law enforcement drives his posts, not actual smarts about the subject matter.
Look at the definition of community policing being given in here.
I’ll quote the “sure” one:
“Community Based Policing was, and still is, an attempt to partnership with the average citizen, homeowner, business or whoever to elevate the quality of their life by alerting us to problems in their areas”
Again, to attempt a “partnership” with the community that involves the community alerting them to problems in their area. Not city wide, county wide, or nationwide, but in their area, nor even randomly. A “problem” would mean ongoing, would it not? That means when there’s young black guys hanging out at the house across the street, Mrs. Buttermaker’s watching them and keeping the cops up to date on their activities, even though they’re yet to break a law. If you guys don’t believe that, then who’s being naive?
Sure Fire Says:
February 4th, 2010 at 7:33 am
Robbie is nothing more than a shill for gangsters and other thugs.
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Really? When have I “shilled” for gangsters and “other thugs”? Direct quotes and links, please.
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His stupidity is amusing though.
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My stupidity?
Who used “partnership” as a verb?
Who, when attempting to contrast community policing from what was once called the neighborhood watch program, wound up giving a definition of a neighborhood watch program, albeit with longer words?
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He knows nothing about police work,
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Evidently, neither do you.
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His inability to differentiate between two very different police type concepts shows he not only is simple minded, but not man enough to admit when he’s wrong.
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Well, actually, your inability to explain the difference between the two is what makes it all the more surprising that you would call someone stupid. Again, still waiting on a definition of community policing that doesn’t invoke the neighborhood watch concept.
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His hate for all law enforcement
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Excuse me?
Where do I say I hate all law enforcement? I don’t even hate you. I just don’t believe most of what you write. I think you’re very agenda driven and very hostile toward anyone who doesn’t sign on to your agenda, including the author of this blog herself. You always cry about people not seeing your point of view, while you’re yet to consider any point of view other than your own. You’re an overgrown baby. I’ve heard people in here talk about the welfare mentality, the mentality of entitlement. If such a mentality really exists, it’s a safe bet that it’s spread to some in public service, as well.
Also of note: You’re calling me “Robbie”, which is a feminine derivative of my name, Robert, or Rob, which I call myself in here. Since you’re obviously doing this in an attempt to insult me, it demonstrates that you equate womanhood with weakness, which is unfortunate. Many female police officers have saved the lives of their male colleagues. Women serve in our military. Women run businesses. A woman is going to enter the NASCAR circuit and I seriously doubt she’s going to finish last. That means she’s going to leave some men in the dust; men like you, that would call a man named Rob “Robbie” just because he disagrees with their political views.
Yes ROB that’d be Danica Patrick soon to run in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup (“the big boys”, we fans call them) I read where all the male drivers wish her the best of luck, even Robbie Gordon. That wm drove in the Indy Series for the last few years, open wheel cars that demand the most delicate AND gutsy handling. Whoops! I just realized I self-identified as a race fan. I hope it doesn’t disqualify my social opinions. Congrats to you Rob for standing up for what you believe.
Again, all “Robbie” does is stretch the conversation in a meaningless attempt to cover his constant flow of b.s. and paranoia about cops. Anyone who calls the entire LAPD Nazi’s is cop hating scum, his whine about being otherwise is pathetic and shows again his lack of courage to admit it.
Instead “Robbie” goes off on my use of the word “partnership” or his attempt to figure out why I call him “Robbie”. Maybe he should look at some of my responses to others that have come off as weaklings to me, he’ll see the same “ie”.
This is what people do though to change the tone or direction of debate when they have no expertise regarding the subject matter and in the case of most all liberal weaklings I’ve dealt with, attempt to project their own misguided notion that their superior to anyone else.
Who truly cares if some paranoid old lady is calling about “black guys” hanging out at some house? Cops don’t filter those types of calls from the same source? When did race baiting become part of the conversation? Total b.s. from the king of it here, she wouldn’t be calling on skinhead types? “Robbie” is so weak it’s laughable.
Stick the topics. Enough of the childish whining and name-calling.
“Robbie†is so weak it’s laughable.
Not as weak as your dribbling urine flow pal.
Not your pal miss.
Living in your mothers basement will make you an angry man and very un-happy with the Republicans, who are solely responsible for your failures.
What is a “gang sympathizer�
RobThomas
I remember this day. 🙂