San Diego, CA: On Thursday, August 1st, 2013, Assistant Chief Lawrence McKinney announced his retirement from the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) and 30+ years of service to the citizens of San Diego among hundreds of police department and city of San Diego staff, family and community leaders. His retirement celebration included special presentations from California State Assemblymember Shirley Weber, City of San Diego Councilmember Myrtle Cole, San Diego Unified School Police Chief Ruben Littlejohn and Board Trustee Marne Foster, Southwestern College Police, the San Diego Black Police Officers Association and the San Diego Police Officers Association.
Lawrence McKinney began his service career in 1978. In 1983, after 2 years of duty as a Military Police Officer at Camp Pendelton and two years as a Drill Instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, he was hired by the City of San Diego as a police officer. Following his service career in the U.S. Marine Corps McKinneyOver the past 30 years Assistant Chief McKinney worked tirelessly from the bottom of the ranks as an officer and rose to the top as the voice of Chief William Lansdowne’s Executive Committee through his career in the City of San Diego’s Police Department.While assigned as an officer in the min 1980’s, Assistant Chief McKinney volunteered to work in Southeast San Diego. This was during a time when many officers in the department did not want to work in the area because of perceptions of danger and misunderstandings related to race. Chief McKinney provided a liaison between the community and the police during these times. He worked in practically every division of the police department from undercover, motorcycle and traffic, police recruiter, Jurisdictions Unified for Drug and Gang Enforcement (JUDGE) County Taskforce, Operational Support, Vice, Robbery, Narcotic Taskforce, Special Operations, Canine, ABLE,SWAT/SRT and Fleet Liaison.
As a sergeant he worked in the community as a Gang Unit supervisor. During this time he was assigned to Black and Filipino gang sets. He was instrumental in supervising several notorious San Diego gang cases included one where a gang member shot into a crowd of people at Skyline Rec striking a Pop Warner football coach. The Sgt. McKinney supervised the team that identified the suspects in the case, tracked them down, obtained statements and ultimately arrested the shooter.As a lieutenant, McKinney again volunteered to work the Southeastern Division where he was instrumental in strengthening community relationships with SDPD. As a captain, McKinney made perhaps his biggest impact on the community and SDPD while working in the Mid-City Division in 2008 in East San Diego when there was low morale, low community interaction and involvement. McKinney rebuilt the officers’ sense of pride in serving the community at the same time re-establishing relationships with community members. Often his peers expressed amazement and concern that anyone that spent so much time in one place was undesirable.
However, on the day of retirement long lines of staff who worked under his leadership and alongside with him in the department and in the community all gave him many praises of the positive impact he made with everyone that he had interacted with. Even during challenging times within the department and in the community many shared Chief McKinney was always fair. Connie Wilder, Officer, San Diego Unified School Police, “Within every community throughout this fine city of San Diego and along with myself will miss Chief McKinney’s dedication and support. He is a great ally to have in the work that are set to do with our students in San Diego Unified. I wish him and his family well as they move on to their next journey in life.”
