Los Angeles police chief announces retirement after tumultuous tenure marked by pandemic, protests

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles’ police chief announced his retirement Friday as head of one of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies, capping a tenure marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, protests over racial injustice and increased scrutiny of excessive force and police killings on citizens.

Chief Michel Moore will step down in February, but will remain as an advisor indefinitely. He is leaving as the department, like many across the country, reconsiders its use of force in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests in 2020. Moore’s department has faced fierce criticism for the way it handled demonstrations took place.

“During my tenure, I know I have made mistakes and missteps,” Moore said during a news conference with Mayor Karen Bass. “But I also believe that my work has had success on a broad spectrum of issues unmatched by any other law enforcement agency in this country.”

The Board of Police Commissioners will appoint an interim chief ahead of a national search. The next leader will be charged with overseeing safety at the 2028 Olympic Games.

Moore became the city’s top police officer in 2018. Although he was reappointed last year to a second five-year term as chief and repeatedly said he did not intend to serve the full five years, the news of his retirement was unexpected.

Moore choked up, saying he and his wife plan to move closer to their out-of-state daughter. He called it an “extreme honor and privilege” to serve in Los Angeles during a career that spanned four decades.

In the wake of the George Floyd protests in LA, an independent report castigated the department for its actions, citing outdated tactics and neglected reforms agreed upon after mishandling previous demonstrations over the past two decades.

Although most protests in the city were largely peaceful, episodes of violence and crime broke out. Hundreds were injured or accused police of violating their rights during clashes and mass arrests, prompting several lawsuits. Dozens of businesses were damaged or looted, and more than a hundred police officers were injured.

Local activists have continued to protest the department and Moore’s leadership.

‘Sacked by the people! #NoMoreMoore,” the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter said Friday on X, formerly Twitter.

Known as a cerebral and data-driven chief, Moore has come under fire for the mistakes and misconduct of his officers. Police fatally shot Mely Corado, an innocent bystander, during a standoff at a Trader Joe’s in 2018.

On

Moore’s tenure also overlaps with a long-running debate over Proposition 47, which was passed by California voters in 2014 and reclassified theft crimes as felonies. Critics have blamed the change for fueling a wave of robberies, but supporters say shoplifting and petty theft cannot be prosecuted. Bass credited Moore with forming a task force to address the thefts, adding that they had decreased since the group’s founding.

Public frustrations have also grown over the city’s ongoing homelessness crisis, with around 46,000 people living on the streets. Law enforcement’s role in responding to homelessness has changed in much of California as the state focuses more on services and less on criminal citations, but police still play a role in clearing encampments and are called upon to respond to crimes in and around them. Homeless people in Los Angeles were victims of nearly a quarter of the city’s homicides in 2021.

Other stains on Moore’s legacy include when bomb technicians in South Los Angeles overloaded a containment chamber with homemade fireworks during a blast in 2021, causing a catastrophic explosion that injured more than a dozen people and rocked a neighborhood.

Last year, a publicly released publication accidentally included the names and photos of hundreds of undercover officers, which were posted online by a technology watchdog group. Officers were not notified in advance of the revelation, and the response threw the department into turmoil. The inspector general launched an investigation into Moore and the agency’s constitutional police director after an officers’ union filed a misconduct complaint.

More recently, stories of scandals involving his command staff appeared in the Los Angeles Times as officers faced depleted ranks on the streets. There are fewer than 9,000 officers in the country’s second-largest city, far fewer than the 9,500 number.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file officers, praised Moore’s “open-door policy that allowed LAPPL to present the rank-and-file perspective on a variety of issues.”

“Although we did not always agree, we had a respectful and productive relationship,” the league’s board of directors said in a statement. They urged the selection of a new chief who is “committed to rebuilding the ranks of the department, reducing violent crime and improving morale.”