Retired Long Beach Police Chief Jerome Lance Passes
He Proposed LBPD Budget Plan Under Mayor O'Neill (2002) That Would Bolster Police Levels (Officers Added For Taxpayers Then Are Now Virtually Entirely Gone); Spoke Emotionally Directly to Community In Describing Fatal Police Shooting of Marcella Byrd
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(July 27, 2015) -- LBREPORT.com is saddened to report the passing of retired Long Beach Police Chief Jerome Lance.
Chief Lance passed away on Saturday July 25. Services are pending; we'll update our readers as we learn further.
Chief Lance joined LBPD in 1964 as a patrol officer, rising through the ranks to the position of Chief of Police on November 20, 1999. He announced his retirement in September 2002 (effective at the end of December 2002) just days after testifying at a City Council budget session at which he presented a department budget plan to provide taxpayers with 74 additional officers, the highest level in LBPD history to that point.
Those who worked alongside him said Chief Lance was a good cop...and a compassionate cop. A month prior to announcing his retirement, Chief Lance personally faced the community in an emotional presentation to an NAACP meeting following the fatal police shooting of Marcella Byrd, a 57 year old woman who was wielding a knife in downtown Long Beach. (After the shooting, it was learned that Ms. Byrd suffered from mental illness.)
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"When an officer is forced to take a life to protect the community or themselves, that action makes an indelible impression on them," said Chief Lance, becoming emotional, and continued, "You never forget." He paused for roughly 30 seconds to fully regain composure before completing his remarks and then fielded audience questions.
Chief Lance was also in office, and didn't hide his emotions, when Officer Daryl Black was shot and killed in the line of duty (and Black's partner shot and wounded) in the 1900 block of Lime Ave. (April 2000). (The City created a memorial park in the 2000 block of Pasadena Ave. with a powerful statue honoring Officer Black.)
The city management budget plan presented by Chief Lance in September 2002 included 26 officers for Port and Airport security tasks, officers to handle LBUSD campus duties, replacement officers covering street duties (replacing officers tasked to security duties) plus 10 additional new officers...funded mainly by grants (including a federal grant for 36 officers sought and obtained by city staff action) that would significantly reduce costs for LB taxpayers.
Chief Lance and Assistant City Manager Gerry Miller (on behalf of City Manager Taboada) submitted a U.S. DOJ COPS grant application in May, 2002 which succeeded in producing an award of 36 sworn officers plus a waiver reducing LB taxpayers' cost below what such grants normally require. The grant was the second largest awarded to any CA city in the grant cycle.
LBPD reached a budgeted high in sworn officers 2008-09 under Chief Batts during the Foster administration...but when the 2008 economic downturn made raises for City Hall's three largest city employee unions unsustainable (contracts Foster recommended in 2007 and 2008 without pension reform and despite a 2002 pension spike that he'd lambasted in his 2006 campaign), Foster's response was to recommend what he called "proportional budget reductions." These had major impacts on police and fire services for taxpayers; over a period of five years (2009-2014) under Mayor Foster, taxpayers lost virtually all of the citywide deployable officers added during the O'Neill administration. (Several dozen of the officers had been added using federal "community oriented policing" grants sought and obtained by the City, a practice also ended under the Foster administration.)
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In August 2002, Chief Lance appeared personally at a community meeting organized by LB's NAACP branch to describe the chain of events that culminated in the January 19, 2002 officer involved shooting death of Marcella Byrd. Ms. Byrd, a 57 year old LB resident, was intercepted by police officers while wielding a knife and walking south on Pine Ave. toward 4th St. after earlier committing a theft at a local market. Police said she was unresponsive to their commands. At 4th St., police attempted to use less than lethal bean bag rounds before Ms. Byrd allegedly raised the knife and officers fired and she did not survive. Only after the encounter did police learn she was schizophrenic.
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In addressing the NAACP meeting, Chief Lance spoke with emotion, pausing at one point for roughly half a minute to regain his composure, as he described the chain of events that unfolded.
"It is tragic anytime a person dies at the hands of another. My sympathy goes out to [the Byrd family], to her friends. But my heart also goes out to the officers who are affected by this very challenging and dynamic situation and did their best to assure the safety of this community..."
"...As a result of the investigation, we've learned that Ms. Byrd suffered from mental illness. It was determined that at the time of her death, Ms. Byrd had apparently not taken her medication. Given this information, we can conclude that her behavior may have been attributed to her mental illness and that the lack of medication made things worse. Unfortunately, the officers in this situation did not know this, and did not have time to find this out...
"...If [Ms. Byrd] she had taken her medication, if she had not been armed, if she had dropped the weapon, if she had talked to us, if she had simply stopped, or if she had not raised the knife to a throwing position, Ms. Byrd would likely be alive today.
"Despite what you might see and believe on television, police officers go through an entire career, many of them, without ever firing their weapon. When an officer is forced to take a life to protect the community or themselves, that action makes an indelible impression on them. [becoming emotional] You never forget. [pauses roughly 30 seconds to fully regain composure, then continues]
"...The simple fact is that neither weapons, nor...bullet proof vests, can stop an attack with a knife. Our officers had the duty and responsibility to protect the people on Pine Ave. from a knife wielding suspect. They attempted to do that impeding her progress south on Pine Ave., by keeping innocent bystanders away from the scene, and by repeatedly trying to get Ms. Byrd to talk to them, and to get her to stop and drop the knife...
"Once again, I am truly sorry Ms. Byrd lost her life. I have sympathy for her family, for her friends, for the community. I also have sympathy for those officers who have to live with this for the rest of their lives. We want to work with you, the members of the community, to learn from this incident. But more important, to improve the safety and quality of life for all people in Long Beach."
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Two months earlier, on June 17, 2002, the L.A. County D.A.'s office notified LBPD that "the officers' use of lethal force was a justified act of self-defense and defense of others."
Retired Chief Lance came out of retirement briefly from March through December 2005, serving as interim police chief for the City of Oceanside (which hired LBPD Commander Frank McCoy as its permanent chief.)
Arrangements for Chief Lance are pending. LBREPORT.com will report further information as we learn it.
