He is the former sheriff and head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the largest in the US, having been elected as L.A. County's 32nd sheriff on November 4, 2014, defeating former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka.[2] He replaced interim sheriff John Scott on December 1, 2014. Scott replaced former sheriff Lee Baca (who was also in federal prison).[3] McDonnell was defeated for re-election as Sheriff in 2018 by Alex Villanueva.[4][5][6]
Previously, McDonnell served as the Chief of Police in Long Beach, California from 2010–2014, and before that, he had served in various positions in the Los Angeles Police Department from 1981–2010, including First Assistant Chief, the second-highest position in the department.[7]
McDonnell began his law enforcement career as 21-year-old graduate from the Los Angeles Police Academy in 1981. During his 28 years of work in the LAPD, he held every rank except Chief of Police and served as second in command to Chief William Bratton.[9] He was considered a frontrunner for the position in 2009 to replace Bratton, but Deputy Chief Charlie Beck was appointed instead.[10] While at the LAPD McDonnell was viewed as an ambassador who helped the department connect with Los Angeles' diverse communities and political leaders as Bratton's chief of staff and second-in-command.[10] As a candidate for Chief in 2002, McDonnell presented a plan for community-based policing that was eventually adopted by Bratton and served as the foundation to overhaul and reform the LAPD.[10] While working for the LAPD, he held a variety of assignments in patrol, detectives, vice, gang, organized crime, homicide and other divisions. In the 1990s as a commander, he gained attention for his efforts to revitalize the LAPD's senior lead officer program and to build the LAPD forerunner to the Compstat computer crime-mapping system along with helping implement the consent decree.[8][10]
LBPD
After losing the LAPD Chief's job to Charlie Beck, McDonnell in March 2010 was appointed as the police chief of Long Beach, California, replacing former Chief Anthony Batts, who left to become the chief of the Oakland Police Department. This occurred over objections by some in the department who preferred a chief from within the Long Beach Police Department and, indeed, a career LBPD officer would succeed McDonnell.[11][12] As police chief, McDonnell oversaw a large increase in officer-involved shootings and a 20% decrease in sworn officers from 1,000 to 800.[13]
Violent crime also fell during McDonnell's tenure and he has received credit for improving community relations with the police, reducing gang activity, and trying to improve racial diversity in the department.[13] After McDonnell's election on November 4, 2014, Deputy Chief Robert Luna was selected to replace him to become the 26th Police Chief of Long Beach.[14] Luna was considered a frontrunner for the position before McDonnell was appointed and became the department's first Latino police chief.[14]
LASD
McDonnell expressed support for a civilian oversight commission to supplement the new inspector general in monitoring the department but has stated that he is still evaluating whether the inspector general should have subpoena power and access to personnel records.[8] He was sworn in on December 1, 2014, and became the first person from outside of the sheriff's department to be elected to the office of Sheriff in over 100 years.[8] McDonnell lost his 2018 reelection bid to Alex Villanueva,[15] who in turn would lose a 2022 reelection bid to Robert Luna, who had been McDonnell's successor as Long Beach police chief.
