Richard Vogel / AP, file
Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore speaks after being sworn in at the police academy on Thursday, June 28, 2018 in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles police chief announced his retirement Friday, Jan. 12, 2024 in an unexpected departure as the head of one of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies.
Friday, Jan. 12, 2024 | 5:33 p.m.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles police chief announced his retirement from the head of one of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies Friday, concluding a tenure marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, protests over racial injustice and greater scrutiny into excessive force and police killings of civilians.
Chief Michel Moore is stepping down in February but will remain on as a consultant for an undetermined amount of time. He leaves as the department, like many nationwide, reconsiders its use of force in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and subsequent protests in 2020. Moore’s department faced staunch criticism for its handling of demonstrations.
“During my tenure, I know I’ve made mistakes and missteps,” Moore said during a news conference with Mayor Karen Bass. “But I’m also confident that my work has seen success across a broad spectrum of topics, unmatched by any other law enforcement agency in this country.”
He became the city's top police officer in 2018. Although he was reappointed last year for a second five-year term as chief and repeatedly said he did not plan to serve the full five years, the news of his retirement was unexpected. The press conference advisory from the mayor's office, released 45 minutes before it began Friday afternoon, did not even list a topic.
Choking up, Moore said he and his wife plan to move closer to their out-of-state daughter. He called it a “distinct honor and privilege to have served for more than four decades on the finest police department in the world and for the last five-and-a-half years as chief.”
The Board of Police Commissioners will appoint an interim police chief ahead of a nationwide search. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, did not immediately have a comment on Moore’s retirement.
In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests in LA, an independent report excoriated the department for its actions, citing antiquated tactics and neglected reforms that had been agreed upon after the mishandling of previous demonstrations over the last two decades.
While most of the protests across the city were largely peaceful, pockets of violence and crime erupted. Hundreds were injured or accused police of violating their rights during clashes and mass arrests, prompting several lawsuits. Scores of businesses were damaged or looted, and more than 100 officers were injured.
Police said they began new crowd management and control training as a result of the 2020 protests.
“The opportunity to learn from our mistakes, to grow, and become better servants to our community is something that has been embraced and we look forward to leaning into the challenges and being better,” the LAPD statement following the report.
But local activists have continued to protest the department and Moore's leadership.
“Fired by the people! #NoMoreMoore,” the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter said on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
Known as a cerebral and data-driven chief, Moore has come under fire for his officers' mistakes and misconduct. Police fatally shot a Trader Joe's manager during a standoff in 2018, and a 14-year-old girl was killed in 2021 inside a clothing store when an officer's rifle round pierced a dressing room wall.
In South Los Angeles, also in 2021, bomb technicians overloaded a containment chamber with homemade fireworks during a detonation and caused a catastrophic explosion that injured more than a dozen people and rocked a neighborhood.
Last year, a public records release accidentally included the names and photographs of hundreds of undercover officers, which were posted online by a technology watchdog group. The officers were not given advance notice of the disclosure, and the backlash roiled the department. The inspector general launched an investigation into Moore and the agency’s constitutional policing director after an officers union filed a misconduct complaint.
More recently, stories about scandals involving his command staff played out in the Los Angeles Times, while officers on the street are facing depleted ranks. There are fewer than 9,000 deployed officers in the nation's second-largest city, far less than its allotment of 9,500.
Moore's tenure also overlapped with a long-running debate over Proposition 47, which was passed by California voters in 2014 and reclassified felony theft offenses as misdemeanors. Critics have blamed the change for fueling a rash of smash-and-grab robberies, but supporters say it does not allow shoplifting and petty theft to go unprosecuted. Bass credited Moore with forming a task force to address smash-and-grab thefts, adding that they had declined since the formation of the group.
