Members of the press interview Deputy Chief Robert Luna after city officials announced on Tuesday that he would assume the office of police chief on Nov. 22, replacing Chief Jim McDonnell, who was elected the new Los Angeles County sheriff.
Staff Writer
Long Beach city officials looked no farther than their own police department to find a new police chief.
A 29-year veteran of the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD), Deputy Chief Robert Luna will officially take the reins as Long Beach’s new police chief next week, marking the City’s most recent change in top-level city management.
Luna will become the City of Long Beach’s first Latino police chief, replacing outgoing Police Chief Jim McDonnell, who, after serving the City for more than four years, won a bid in the Nov. 4 election to become the new Los Angeles County sheriff.
Luna will officially take office as the City’s 26th police chief on Saturday, Nov. 22 during a swearing-in ceremony, according to city officials. McDonnell is scheduled to take an oath of office as the new County sheriff on Dec. 1.
Long Beach city officials named Luna as the City’s top law-enforcement official during a press conference at the LBPD’s headquarters in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Nov. 11 while City Hall was closed in observance of Veterans Day.
Luna, who will earn an annual salary of $238,000, will take charge of a police department that has an annual operating budget of more than $211 million and more than 1,200 personnel, including over 800 sworn police officers, serving the 7th largest city in California.
During the press conference, Luna said he would continue community-policing efforts and immediately start engaging the public when he takes office, adding that he plans to step up accessibility, transparency and responsiveness within the police department.
“We will be carrying a great tradition of professional law-enforcement service that’s going to be visible, accessible, responsive and transparent, never losing focus on the fact that the community is our greatest asset,” Luna said. “I think you’ve seen that all along, and that will not change. It will intensify.”
City Manager Pat West selected Luna out of four top candidates within the police department after launching an expedited internal recruitment process in the days leading up to the election that was forecast to result in McDonnell’s favor.
Other candidates who qualified for the job included Deputy Chief Laura Farinelli, Deputy Chief David Hendricks and Cmdr. Robert Luman, city officials said.
Luna currently oversees the City’s patrol bureau and serves as second-in-command to McDonnell, who had served under former Los Angeles Police Chief Jim Bratton prior to becoming Long Beach’s police chief in 2010.
During a press conference at the Long Beach Police Department’s headquarters on Tuesday, Nov. 11, Deputy Chief Robert Luna (center) gives a speech in front of Mayor Robert Garcia (left) and Commander Alex Avila after being named the City’s new police chief
During his career with the LBPD, Luna has worked in: Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT); homicide, drug and gang investigations; canine operations; and communications.
He also graduated from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Executive Institute while receiving FBI National Academy training and earning master of public administration and bachelor of vocational education degrees from California State University, Long Beach.
Luna is also a graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program and the Delinquency Control Institute (DCI) at the University of Southern California.
In addition, Luna has experience in: disaster and emergency preparedness; terrorism considerations; critical incident management; and the development of problem-solving strategies, according to the LBPD.
Mayor Robert Garcia said Luna has “demonstrated an incredible capacity to lead a commitment of compassion and understanding of community,” adding that the new chief “inspires public trust” and “understands the diversity” of the city.
“Long Beach is a multi-racial, a multi-cultural and a very socio-economic diverse city, and our new police chief understands all these issues,” Garcia said. “He’s someone, above all, who has a good heart. He’s a good person. He loves his family and people. He respects the badge and the men and women who serve, and he’s going to bring a level of, not just knowledge, but compassion to the job that we’re all going to be very proud of.”
Garcia noted that Luna has served on a number of boards for nonprofit organizations, such as the Long Beach Rescue Mission, the American Red Cross and the Special Olympics, while receiving awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the California Conference for Equality and Justice.
Luna praised McDonnell’s leadership, adding that the outgoing chief will be “truly missed” by the department. In an interview with the press after the news conference, Luna said McDonnell is leaving the city in “very good shape.”
City officials have noted that, under McDonnell’s watch, last year, the City hit a 41-year low in the number of reported violent crimes, with a 13.3-percent decrease from the prior year. Still, the police department has been criticized for a number of officer-involved shootings and allegations of excessive force in recent years that have resulted in the City being forced to pay millions of dollars in settlements.
Last year, the City was ordered to pay the family of Doug Zerby, who, in 2010, was shot and killed by Long Beach police while holding a water nozzle that police officers took for a gun, a total of $6.5 million in damages. In addition, earlier this year, Long Beach police were found to have used excessive force in a case involving Tasers, resulting in a nearly $500,000 settlement.
According to a report on year-end statistics released by LBPD last January, in 2013, there were a total of 15 officer-involved shootings that didn’t involve animals or accidental firing of weapons in Long Beach, nearly double the amount that occurred the year prior.
Luna dodged questions about whether the City should add more police officers on the streets after years of budget cuts. However, he did say that the police department would move forward as a “team,” using more “holistic” and preventative approaches to policing.
“We may be able to prevent a lot of crimes that are occurring,” Luna said. “So, I’ll look at it, holistically, so we can move forward as a team to figure out what the best recommendations will be.”
