Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck officially put in papers Thursday seeking a second five-year term, per city charter protocol. Beck announced to reporters last month that he planned to ask for a second term.
In his letter to the police commission, Beck boasted the department made “tremendous progress” since he was first appointed police chief in November 2009.
“We’ve reduced crime to record lows, reduced gang crime by nearly half, completed all conditions of the federal Consent Decree and managed to say within the boundaries of our budget during the toughest financial era since the Great Depression,” Beck wrote.
He said he wanted to focus on making the LAPD a data driven department and use technology to enhancing policing in the next five years.
"I still believe there is much more to be accomplished," Beck said.
In January, he and Los Angeles city mayor Eric Garcetti announced overall citywide crime fell for the 11th straight year, including violent crime, which is down approximately 39 percent since 2008.
The mayor asked Beck to for a five year plan on how LAPD will keep reducing crime, hire new officers, use new technology and keep cops ethical now that a federal consent decree has been lifted, a Garcetti spokesperson said.
"The Chief of Police must be accountable to the community he serves, and our City Charter wisely created a Board of Police Commissioners to maintain civilian oversight of our police department and its chief,” Garcetti said in a statement.
Beck has been criticized by some on the police commission recently for handing out weak punishment to an off-duty officer accused using a racial slur and the eight officers who last year fired more than a hundred rounds at unarmed women in a truck during the search for former officer Christopher Dorner.
The L.A. Police Commission will decide whether to accept or reject Beck’s interest in a second term as police chief. The decision must be approved by the Los Angeles City Council.
Los Angeles residents will get a chance to weigh in on at two community meetings before the police commission makes its decision in August.
Beck began is career with the Los Angeles Police Department in March 1977 and is credited with helping reform the Rampart Division in the early 2000s after officers there were implicated in police misconduct, including unprovoked shootings, beatings and planting guns on suspects.
A Long Beach native, Beck rose through the ranks to serve as deputy chief in 2006 and was appointed police chief in 2009. His current term ends in November 17.