Longtime San Fernando Valley observer and former Los Angeles Daily News editor Ron Kaye has found the recent process of choosing the new chief of the Los Angeles Police Department to be fishy, and he recently told us so. But this week he blogs that presumptive Chief Charlie Beck was shoehorned into a list of finalists.

Beck is well liked by the LAPD's troops and City Hall leaders, but perhaps his biggest attribute was the political support he received from outgoing Chief William Bratton. Kaye finds it strange that a potential star candidate such as Miami top-cop John Timoney didn't make the Police Commission's list of finalists (LAPD insiders Beck, Michel Moore and Jim McDonnell were the top three picks), and he found the headhunt for a new LAPD leader to be abbreviated.

Kaye writes: “The whispers among insiders is that Beck really didn't make the list of

three but was inserted into the third spot when the commission was

confronted with the knowledge that the situation could turn into a

controversy instead of a coronation because the mayor already had

agreed to follow Bratton's advice.”

If true, the revelation would be a bombshell for a process that is supposed to have some deliberation and checks and balances (commission members and the chief are appointed by the mayor, but Bratton, because of his effectiveness and star quality, enjoyed independent political power).

Spotted via LAObserved.

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