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Chief Bratton Leaves LAPD

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LAPD Chief William Bratton makes a surprise move out of his office and out of town. His timing and his next step are both in question.

Kevin Roderick at L.A. Observed does a great job summing up the various points and questions raised by Bratton's abrupt decision. Among the facts, reactions, and speculations:

Bratton is staying until Oct. 31 -- a week after the new LAPD headquarters opens -- then going to run a subsidiary focused on international police consulting for Altegrity Inc... * Villaraigosa said Bratton's successor could come from within the LAPD but would have to emerge from a national search as the best candidate.... * Bratton....declared victory in professionalizing the department and in using the LAPD to ease racial tensions in Los Angeles, adding that "we are now a majority minority department, We look like and are the Los Angeles community." * Villaraigosa... said...he didn't learn until last night that Bratton was leaving. The chief dodged a question from KFWB's Claudia Peschiutta about whether the discussions about the job began while [Michael] Cherkasky [who runs the company Bratton is going to work for] was still the LAPD's federal monitor. The consent decree was lifted in mid July.......

And on the Bratton succession:

* Pseudonymous LAPD cop Jack Dunphy weighs in for the department's old school clique, writing at the National Review: "He leaves the LAPD in a far better condition than when he arrived, and for all my many criticisms of Bratton over the years, that fact simply cannot be ignored...But I will say this: It was the corrosive influence of identity politics that burdened the LAPD with the affable but hapless Willie Williams and the tyrannical Bernard Parks, under both of whom the department suffered badly. Such influences will no doubt come into play in the coming months, but I hope those charged with selecting the new chief will be wise enough to put them aside. May the best man (or woman) win."

From Bratton's farewell statement to his LAPD men and women, defending his record:

We committed to full implementation of the Federal Consent Decree, and while it took longer than originally anticipated, we have done that. We campaigned to grow the Department by 1,000 officers and with the focused leadership of Mayor Villaraigosa and the support of the City Council and voters we are doing that. We also committed to Bias-Free Policing, to ensure that all the residents and visitors to our City of Angels would be the benefactors of constitutional, compassionate, consistent policing in every neighborhood. The recent Harvard Study and Los Angeles Times poll have conclusively shown that a significant majority of all Angelinos feel that you are succeeding. It will not be easy to leave because, while much has been done, there is still much more that can be done. But having met the personal and professional challenges that I set for myself, I feel that this is an appropriate time for new leadership to move the Department forward and meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Tim Rutten at the L.A. Times is mad at Bratton:

The timing of Bratton's exit couldn't be worse. The city faces a fiscal crisis of unprecedented magnitude that will force the LAPD to do at least as much -- and perhaps more -- with far less. Hiring freezes, furloughs and budget reductions are bound to strain the department in deep and unforeseen ways, potentially threatening much of the progress that has been made over the last seven years. When the chief gave Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa his notice, he ensured that the department for which he professes such great affection will have to confront the grinding challenges ahead with a new chief and, inevitably, a new command staff. It's hard to escape the suspicion that Bratton was glad to lead the LAPD through an expansive era in which he had the vast majority of budgetary considerations his own way, but is reluctant to manage it through rough times in which simply hanging on to what's been achieved will be a triumph....

Rutten also lays out the heart of what seems fishy to many about the company Bratton's leaving LAPD to work for:

As the head of a new security firm, Altegrity, Cherkasky plans to build a brand around Bratton....It's unlikely that Bratton would have been willing to leave his top spot at the LAPD while the department still was under the federal consent decree, and it was Cherkasky, in his role as court-appointed monitor, who advised the judge to lift the decree....In other words, the monitor gave the court advice that helped cement Bratton's reputation as the country's leading police chief, then just weeks later the two enter into a lucrative business arrangement built on that very reputation.

Bratton doesn't rule out ending up back in his old job as police commish of New York, he tells the Daily News.

Past City of Angles blogging on Bratton and LAPD here and here.

(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

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