Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Friday that he will step down at the end of next month, a surprise announcement that immediately sets off a search for his successor even as city leaders grapple with an understaffed police force beset with a host of other challenges.
In tearful remarks, Moore — who has spent his lengthy career with LAPD, climbing through the ranks for more than 40 years, capped by his appointment to chief by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2018 — said he was leaving his post to spend more time with his family.
Moore said he realized he wanted to retire after spending time with his daughter over the holidays.
“The hardest part was getting back on the plane, let me tell you,” Moore, choking up, said about returning from visiting his daughter, who is in college.
“I know in my heart that now is the right time.”
Moore was flanked by Mayor Karen Bass as he gave his remarks at City Hall. Bass said Moore will stay on as a consultant following his retirement .
Bass refused to provide details of that contract.
“I did want to secure (Moore staying on) through a consultant contract,” Bass said. “We haven’t established it yet. We’re just talking about what we want to do. We don’t know.”
Moore’s retirement will come at least a year earlier than was previously announced.
After the L.A. Police Commission unanimously voted in January 2023 to reappoint Moore to a second five-year term, the chief said he would only stay for the first two to three years of his term, to set up his successor ahead of the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A. But his announcement Friday came just a year after setting out that timeline.
“There’s always a thousand reasons to justify staying on,” Moore said. “There’s more sand at the bottom of my hourglass than there is at the top. The work I speak of will never be done.”
Bass said the Police Commission will appoint an interim chief to take over the role as she chooses candidates for Moore successor. The mayor did not give a timeline for how long it might take to find a new chief.
Moore, now 63, joined LAPD in 1981, serving in numerous rank-and-file roles before he was promoted to captain in 1998. Among his assignments was the command of LAPD’s Rampart Division in the wake of the arrest of officers in the department’s CRASH unit on corruption charges, which unfolded into what’s now known as the Rampart scandal.
He became a top commander for then-Chief Charlie Beck, first as the deputy chief of the Valley Division in 2010, then as the assistant chief overseeing all of daily patrol operations in 2016.
Upon his appointment as chief in 2018, Moore was noted as law enforcement leader who valued a statistics-driven and community-based approach to policing. But under his leadership, LAPD would soon see numerous crises and internal scandals.
Moore was chief when protests against police violence erupted across the country in Spring 2020 following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. LAPD came under intense scrutiny for the department’s violent response to street protests that broke out locally, with numerous activists calling for Moore’s firing after he appeared to blame people stealing items from stores during the protests for Floyd’s death.
“We didn’t have protests last night, we had criminal acts,” he said during a public address. “We didn’t have people mourning the death of this man, George Floyd, we had people capitalizing. His death is on their hands as much as it is those officers.”
Moore was not fired, but the city ordered independent audits of LAPD’s response that eventually faulted department commanders for a confused, failed response to the protests.
Since 2021, the department has struggled in rebuilding a depleted force of sworn officers. As of Moore’s announcement, LAPD was still under 9,000 sworn officers currently with the department.
“They’re struggling,” said Dennis Zine, a former L.A. city councilman for the San Fernando Valley and himself a former LAPD officer. “Not only in recruitment of sworn officers, but also civilians. Their dispatch center is understaffed. There’s a lot of challenges.”
City News Service contributed to this report
