LAX police chief gains union support in bid for Sheriff

LOS ANGELES, CA — Continuing to expand his coalition of support just two days after announcing his campaign for L.A. County Sheriff, today LAX Airport Police Chief Cecil Rhambo garnered the endorsement of the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades District Council 36.

In announcing their endorsement, International Union of Painters & Allied Trades District Council 36 Political Director Robert Smith remarked:

“It’s time for a new sheriff in town and that’s why the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36 are endorsing Chief Cecil Rhambo. After years of division and scandal, the people of L.A. County need a new leader at the helm of the LASD. Chief Cecil Rhambo is that candidate. He will enact much-needed reforms to transform the department and bring the change we need. We are with him all the way.”

To view Chief Cecil Rhambo’s campaign launch video, “For Good,” please click here .

Since entering the race for L.A. County Sheriff, Chief Rhambo has lined up endorsements from the following:

• International Union of Painters & Allied Trades District Council 36
• California Legislative Black Caucus Chair and State Senator Steve Bradford
• California Assembly Democratic Caucus Chair and State Assemblymember Mike Gipson
• California Progressive Caucus Founder and State Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer
• California State Assemblymember Autumn Burke
• California State Assemblymember Jim Cooper
• Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr.
• Torrance Mayor Pat Furey
• Compton Mayor Emma Sharif
• Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand
• Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes
• Lawndale Mayor Robert Pullen-Miles

Cecil Rhambo is a longtime public servant and public safety officer who currently serves as the Chief of Airport Police at LAX.

Rhambo was raised in Compton and South Los Angeles after being adopted from Korea as an infant, graduating from Washington High School. Following college, Rhambo started his 33-year career in law enforcement, where he quickly moved up the ranks.

As a Sergeant, Rhambo was assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau where he assisted in the formation of the Shooting and Force Response Team in the wake of the Rodney King beating, the first time the Sheriff’s Department used Internal Affairs bureau began extensively reviewing reports of excessive force, including creating a database where the misconduct records of officers would be tracked as an “early warning” system.

As a Lieutenant in Internal Affairs Bureau, Rhambo began leading the Shooting and Force Response Teams and was later directed to head the Asian Crime Task Force, where he commanded a group of investigators and multilingual deputies to investigate crimes in LA County committed against Asians or by Asians, focusing on community outreach.

In 2000, after the city of Compton voted to disband its police department, Cecil was assigned to be the Captain of Compton’s Sheriff patrol contract, returning to the community he was from.  During his three years in this role, Rhambo heavily focused on community policing in the worst-hit areas of the city, which resulted in a dramatic reduction in crime, gang activity, and traffic fatalities along with establishing their first youth boxing and recreation center and paving the way for the first Starbucks.

After leaving the City of Compton, Rhambo was asked to re-start the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Bureau, which focused on suppressing violent crime, combatting homelessness, parking enforcement, quality of life programs, youth programs, the mental health response teams that partnered a deputy with psych clinicians county-wide, and the Crisis or Hostage Negotiations Team which responds to high-level crisis events like SWAT responses or suicidal barricades.

While commanding the COPS Bureau, Rhambo designed the basic model that’s used to address homeless people to this day by the Sheriff’s Department, relying on a “soft approach” of deputies dressed in soft uniforms partnering with outreach workers and various governmental departments to make contact with the chronically homeless, offer them bridge and supportive housing and connect them with services, including dental offices, showers, clothing, food, and partnering with the Public Defender’s Office to expunge minor offenses.

Later, when the Sheriff’s Department came under fire from the ACLU and the FBI for prisoner abuse, Rhambo took on his boss, then-Sheriff Lee Baca, and other people in leadership. Rhambo urged Baca to fully comply with the FBI, but was ignored. Rhambo eventually testified against the LASD’s corruption, resulting in the imprisonment of Baca and 11 deputies.

As Chief of Airport Police, Rhambo leads the nation’s largest dedicated airport public safety force. Rhambo also served as City Manager of the City of Compton from 2017 through July 2019 and Assistant City Manager of the City of Carson from 2014 to 2017.

For more information please visit www.RhamboForSheriff.com.