Police Chief Wally Hebeish will retire at the end of the year, Long Beach announced on Wednesday, Oct. 21, closing his five-year tenure as the city’s top cop and ending his more than three-decade career in law enforcement.

Long Beach will now conduct a multistep, months-long national search for Hebeish’s successor, the city said in a press release.

Hebeish was appointed as the city’s 27th police chief in December 2021. Since then, he has overseen the second-largest municipal police agency in Los Angeles County, after the LAPD, the city said. Long Beach has 800 sworn officers and about 1,200 personnel. The Police Department is tasked with maintaining public safety in a city that boasts more than 450,000 residents — making it the second-most populous in the county — thriving tourism and local business sectors that produce $2 million in economic impact, and the nation’s second-busiest port, which contributes more than $309 billion in gross-domestic product.

Hebeish succeeded former Chief Robert Luna, stepping into the top job after a tumultuous few years for Long Beach — and having to fill fairly big shoes.

Luna, after all, was Long Beach’s first Latino police chief, a landmark appointment for a city that’s nearly 44% Hispanic or Latino, according to the most-recent census data. And Luna was popular — and able to leverage his legacy in Long Beach — enough to topple incumbent Alex Villanueva during the November 2022 election to become Los Angeles County sheriff, garnering 61% support in the runoff.

Hebeish had a front-row seat as assistant chief while Luna led the Police Department through the COVID-19 pandemic, and protests and looting following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis at the hands of a White police officer. Long Beach also saw its worst mass shooting in history at a Halloween party in October 2019.

Hebeish wasn’t simply a passenger during that time, however. Rather, he led the Office of Constitutional Policing and Strategic Initiatives, which was created in July 2020, in the wake of Floyd’s murder. And just weeks after ascending to chief, he publicly stated the need to further invest in that initiative.

As chief, Hebeish also created the Community Services Bureau, which works to forge strong bonds between LBPD and the community, and expanded the Youth and Community Engagement Division, Long Beach said in its Wednesday press release. He created the LBPD Year in Review and Accountability Report as well.

“Chief Hebeish has led the Long Beach Police Department through a transformative period in modern policing,” City Manager Tom Modica said in a statement, “and he has done so with integrity, compassion and an unwavering commitment to our community.”

Hebeish has also led the department through an era in which Long Beach — and law enforcement agencies nationwide — has struggled with recruitment and retention, as well citywide fiscal challenges.

The city, for example, is facing a $58.2 million shortfall in its 2026-27 fiscal year, though officials balanced the budget with a mix of one-time funds and reductions — including taking millions from the Police Department. The city asked LBPD to cut 63.47 full-time equivalent employees and reduce overtime by 25%, though Mayor Rex Richardson’s budget recommendations ultimately lessened the blow, restoring, for example, four patrol officer positions to strengthen coverage across the East, North, South and West patrol divisions.

To further minimize the austerity measures, Hebeish said during an August budget hearing, the Police Department focused on eliminating already vacant positions.

Still, the belt-tightening contrasted sharply with a milestone LBPD celebrated a month earlier, when it graduated its 100th police academy class, welcoming 85 new officers — the most at one time in the department’s history.

“The graduation of Academy Class No. 100 is a significant moment for our department as the largest police academy class in department history and the next generation of men and women serving with courage, integrity and compassion” Hebeish said in a statement at the time. “(I) look forward to the positive impact they will have as they serve the Long Beach community for years to come.”

Long Beach has also seen year-over-year reductions in shootings during the chief’s tenure leading the department, the city said in its press release. And 2025, in fact, marked the first time in the city’s history that there were no police shootings for an entire year.

The city, in its press release, touted several other LBPD accomplishments under Hebeish, including:

Reducing crime and illegal firearms by, among other initiatives, creating the High Crime Focus Team, which responds citywide to everything from violent crime to business corridor safety and quality of life issues.
Investing in innovation and technology, such as by launching the Real Time Crime Center, using drones to support operations and disseminating information to the public via a new crime dashboard.
Completing, certifying and opening the new LBPD Police Academy.

“(Hebeish) has built a Department that is further grounded in community trust, equity, employee wellness and keeping every neighborhood safe,” Modica said in his statement, “and Long Beach is stronger because of his leadership.”

Hebeish has essentially spent his whole career with Long Beach.

While he began his career in 1994 with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, he joined LBPD a year later and worked his way up the ranks — all the way to the top. Besides being chief and, before that, assistant chief, Hebeish also served as chief of staff, and deputy chief of both the support bureau and patrol bureau, the city said. He has worked in criminal intelligence, investigations, patrol and internal affairs.

But on Dec. 31, his watch will come to an end.

“It has been an incredible honor to stand alongside the dedicated men and women of the Long Beach Police Department in service of our community,” Hebeish said in a statement. “Leading our Police Department through some of the most-challenging times we have faced in modern law enforcement was only possible because of the support given to me by our police officers, professional staff, labor partners, city leadership and the Long Beach community.

“I will be forever grateful,” he added, “for the trust placed in me to lead our department and serve our city.”

Long Beach, meanwhile, will look for Hebeish’s successor both internally and externally, the city said in its press release; an outside recruiter will be brought on to run the process. The city will also talk with the public about the qualities the next chief should possess. And there will be a multistep screening and interview process with human resources, a community panel, a technical panel, and city department heads before Modica makes the final decision on a new chief.