LA Weekly is featuring the search for a new police chief this week. We agree with Joe Domanick, author of To Protect and To Serve: The LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams, and the senior fellow at the Institute for Justice and Journalism at the University of Southern California, in his strong support of William Bratton, former police commissioner for NY and Boston.

In Rethinking the LAPD: An Open Letter to Mayor Hahn: Be Bold, Domanick says:

"You must hire only an outsider, one unencumbered by decades of exposure to the ossified ethos of the LAPD. You need a veteran cop who's avid about different ways of doing business."

"I suggest William Bratton, the former New York City police commissioner. He'd come to Los Angeles with a reputation as a reform leader with huge successes in turning around both the Boston and New York police departments. His selection would be an affirmation that you could identify, capture and attract that caliber of talent to the city of Los Angeles. "

"Bratton, moreover, would also be ideal in carrying out a major step toward reform that you, in fact, helped negotiate: the consent decree between the city and the U.S. Justice Department mandating major LAPD reforms. Bratton not only supports such reform, but he's already a member of the monitoring team overseeing the LAPD's compliance with the decree. "

We've endorsed Bill Bratton before, here, and here, and hope the powers that be in LA are listening.