Former British police officer chosen to lead LAPD watchdog
As the Los Angeles Police Department holds its breath over the selection of its next chief, officials this week announced the selection of the agency’s new top watchdog.
Django Sibley, a former police officer in the United Kingdom, was named executive director of the Los Angeles Police Commission. Sibley held the job on an interim basis for nearly six months after the retirement of Richard Tefank, who served in the role for nearly two decades.
His selection was ratified in a 4-0 vote by the commission on Tuesday.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she intends to pick the city’s next police chief by the end of the month. She has refused to name the finalists, but two candidates were seen visiting her residence this week and a third is also said to be in the running.
Before taking over for Tefank, Sibley spent about two decades in the LAPD inspector general’s office, rising to the rank of assistant inspector general in charge of all investigations of serious police uses of force. He joined the office in 2004 and built a reputation as an effective behind-the-scenes operator with a sophisticated understanding of police affairs.
In a prepared statement, commission president Erroll G. Southers said that the pick comes at “a critical time in this Department’s history.”
“Mr. Sibley comes to us uniquely qualified with an extensive career in law enforcement and police oversight,” the statement read.
A commission spokesperson said that Sibley was selected from among 20 applicants.
As its executive director, Sibley, 51, will act as a liaison between the commission and police department officials. The civilian oversight panel reviews all serious uses of force by LAPD officers and helps craft policies.
His selection fills one of three vacancies in LAPD leadership and oversight positions: chief, inspector general and executive director of the Police Commission.
A year after several anti-gang officers were accused of illegally searching vehicles and stealing from people they pulled over, three of their supervisors now face discipline.
Sibley’s former boss, then-inspector general Mark Smith, left in April after being named as an independent monitor to oversee police reforms in Portland, Ore.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has said she intends to make her chief pick by the end of the month.
The three finalists for the position, winnowed down from a list of more than 30 candidates, are LAPD deputy chief Emada Tingirides; Jim McDonnell, a one-time LAPD assistant chief and former Los Angeles County sheriff; and Robert Arcos, a former LAPD assistant chief who is a senior official in the L.A. County district attorney’s office.
The commission remains at four members, after a potential replacement for former commissioner William Briggs pulled out of consideration a day after his confirmation hearing before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
Bass had nominated Karl Thurmond, a co-chair of Rep. Adam B. Schiff’s finance committee. But members of the council committee appeared to grow frustrated with Thurmond over his responses — and non-responses — to questions about his background, police hiring and other issues.
Before enrolling at graduate school at USC, Sibley worked for Humberside Police, a roughly 4,000-member force that patrols East Riding of Yorkshire, about four hours north of London.
As leaders consider LAPD discipline reforms, an analysis of board of rights hearings showed a handful of civilians were picked to serve over and over.
Sibley’s departure was chronicled in the local newspaper, the Hull Daily Mail, in an article titled, “Bobby packs bags for spell in sunshine state.”
The story says that Sibley joined Humberside police in 1995 and spent the bulk of his career patrolling areas around Hull, a faded North Sea port in northeast England.
Sibley had reportedly chosen to attend USC to study geography, taking advantage of a five-year sabbatical granted to all Humberside officers to “pursue other personal activities.” Sibley told the paper that he was looking forward to living in California, but that “the plan is that I will be back in two years.”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
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