Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman has been vocal about her disapproval of LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, vowing to fire him if elected.
One of her main criticisms is the police department’s relationship with federal immigration enforcement during Donald Trump’s second presidency.
On Thursday, McDonnell spoke with ABC7 to deny Raman’s claims. While McDonnell said that cooperation between local and federal enforcement is crucial, he denied specific accusations that the LAPD has come under fire for.
“Not at all. In fact, we’re prohibited by state law in sharing information like that,” said McDonnell regarding sharing license plate information with federal immigration enforcement.
In June of last year, a database investigation led by Oakland Privacy and provided to CalMatters revealed that the LAPD alongside other police and sheriff’s departments in California shared vital information with ICE and CBP agents. Police officers shared license plate information obtained from Flock automated cameras. Sharing license plate readings with out-of-state entities is prohibited under Senate Bill 34.
Raman has been vocal about her problems with this specific issue, to which McDonnell responded on Thursday.
“When I look at the Flock camera situation, we’re the ones who backed away from Flock because they weren’t providing us with the comfort level we needed as the other two had in order to be able to ensure that the civil liberties issues that were raised were complied with,” said McDonnell.
In June, the LAPD paused their contract with the controversial Flock Safety, who provided them with automated license plate readers. After a recent contract, Axon Enterprise will now provide the police department with this technology.
McDonnell and the LAPD came under fire last year amid the uptick in immigration raids across Los Angeles. A viral video shared on June 2025 showed police officers preventing citizens from protecting a woman being taken by masked ICE agents. LAPD Media Relations had shared a statement saying “the LAPD is not involved in civil immigration enforcement,” however, immigration rights activists as well as advocacy groups such as Union del Barrio disagreed, saying LAPD officers were protecting ICE agents instead of citizens. In the specific incident shown in the viral video, officers arrived after receiving a call from citizens saying a woman was being kidnapped by masked agents.
McDonnell addressed the criticisms of activists and organizations during the interview. “When I hear that kind of thing I just shake my head and I, you know, I don’t know there’s the voice of the activists versus the voices of the public and I get the activists have their role and they’re saying what they need to say based on their political agenda,” he said.
This is not the first time McDonnell has faced criticisms over alleged collaboration with immigration enforcement. When McDonnell was approved as the new LAPD Chief in late 2024, Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez was only one of the two votes against his nomination. Soto-Martinez recalled McDonnell’s history of collaboration with ICE when he served as L.A. County Sheriff in a statement.
“When Chief McDonnell was Los Angeles County Sheriff, he worked with ICE to deport undocumented Angelenos, and opposed a sanctuary policy at the state level,” said Soto-Martinez.
The work with ICE that Soto-Martinez mentioned refers to the sheriff department’s authorization of ICE agents to operate within county jails to target and deport inmates. Additionally, in a letter signed by him, McDonnell opposed Senate Bill 54 back in 2017. The bill — which was later passed by State Legislature — would declare all of California a “sanctuary state,” providing additional protection against immigration enforcement to all immigrants in the state.
McDonnell was told that Raman believes he has not built trust with the immigrant community on Thursdays interview. “”Well, that’s kind of painful because that’s not the read that I get now or the read that I’ve gotten in the 45 years I’ve worked with the, in policing in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County,” McDonnell responded.
“When I look at where the organization was when I came on the job in 1981 versus where we are today, 57% of our sworn workforce are Latino. Over 50% of our civilian professional staff are Latino. And so we mirror the community that we serve and the members of this department come from our community,” McDonnell added, although Latinos were not mentioned by the interviewer when immigrants were brought up.
Mayor Karen Bass and other figures like former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton have spoken out in defense of McDonnell following Raman’s criticisms. Raman’s comments have caused McDonnell to be one of the most talked about subjects during debates leading up to the mayoral election between Bass and Raman.
https://twitter.com/CommissBratton/status/2111810954539278824
Nithya Raman has not publicly confirmed who she would appoint as police chief if she wins the election and follows through with firing McDonnell.
The post LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell Denies Nithya Raman’s Claims of ICE Collaboration appeared first on LAmag.
