Committee chooses Long Beach’s new top cop

A little more than a month after a search committee was formed to vet candidates vying to be Long Beach’s next top cop, Acting Police Commissioner Mike Tangney was sworn in as the Police Department's new commissioner during a special ceremony at City Hall on Friday.

Tangney, a 34-year member of the department — who has served as head of its traffic division, among other posts — was named acting commissioner in early January, shortly after a new Democratic administration took office. Tangney took over the department’s day-to-day operations until a permanent replacement was found.

A six-member committee consisting of police and criminal justice experts was put together a few weeks after his temporary appointment, which included Councilman Scott Mandel, former City Manager Glenn Spiritis; Republican John Gallagher, a former Suffolk County police commissioner and Suffolk’s former chief deputy county executive; and Long Beach resident Jim Mulvaney, the former deputy commissioner of New York state’s Division of Human Rights and a former member of the governor’s Inspector General Panel.

The council was expected to vote to approve Tangney’s appointment at a special meeting on Saturday. City Manager Jack Schnirman thanked members of the committee before he introduced Tangney, who received a round of applause.

“After a competitive interview process, we selected Mike Tangney to be the acting police commissioner,” Schnirman said. “Shortly after that we put together a really fantastic group for our police commissioner search committee.”

Schnirman said that the committee met several times after it narrowed down the candidates from about 13 who applied to three finalists who they interviewed. Though he declined to name the two other finalists after the ceremony, he said it was a tough choice but that Tangney ultimately proved to be the best candidate.

“[The committee] now reached a point where they are unanimously making a recommendation,” Schnirman said. “I reviewed that recommendation and wholeheartedly agree, and forwarding that recommendation on to the full City Council for approval. So with that, obviously we’re here to recommend Mike Tangney to be our next police commissioner.”