But in the last two months, the city has received sad news from its Police and Fire Departments, as Chief of Police Anthony Batts and Fire Chief David Ellis both announced their departures. When they leave, the city loses a combined 54 years of service, with 12 of those years spent at the helm of their departments. With two dedicated public servants leading the way, Long Beach has undeniably become a safer, more efficient city than it was when they both entered their respective community service careers in 1982.

Entered Long Beach Police Department: 1982
Took over as Chief: 2002
Major accomplishments:
• Lowered crime rate in five of seven years as Chief
• Improved police service as budget was cut in each year of service
• Violent crime rates dropped to lowest level since early 1970s
• 8% drop in violent crime
• Decreased gang violence by more than a third
• Increased community trust with police through tireless personal efforts in community

August brought with it an unfortunate surprise for Long Beach, when it was announced that Long Beach Chief of Police Anthony Batts was headed to the Bay Area, leaving his position and his home to take the reigns at the Oakland Police Department. The news caught everyone unawares — even Batts, who had only learned he’d gotten the job a few days before Oakland mayor Ron Dellums made the news public.

Batts hadn’t yet notified any of his fellow officers, or members of the city government, that he was planning to leave. It was a rare communication breakdown for a man whose greatest mark on the LBPD was opening it up to the public, with a constant willingness to engage with the community.

When he was 14 years old, Batts’ mother enrolled him in a Police Explorer Program in South Central Los Angeles, where he grew up — from that day forward, he was a policeman. And from 1982 on, he was Long Beach’s policeman. After graduating from CSULB, he took a job in the LBPD, at the age of 22 years old; aside from a stint of several months as a reserve officer in Hawthorne, Batts has spent his entire career in Long Beach. In the 27 years he was in the department, he skyrocketed through the ranks, eventually taking over as Chief in 2002.

The numbers don’t lie: Long Beach, under Batts, became safer than it had been since the early ‘70s. For all the community appearances and public work he did, a memory of Batts that sticks in Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster’s mind was his demeanor in a more private setting. Shortly after Foster was elected, a gunman shot two Long Beach Police Officers, and Foster was in the command van with Batts as he coordinated the manhunt for the shooter (later shot by police in Santa Ana).

“I could see his intensity,” says Foster. “He wanted to get this guy, and you could just see the concern in his face. When we went to go meet [the families of the officers] we both started breaking down and tearing up. He really was a Police Officer’s Police Chief — he had a great care about his officers, and about his city.”

As a sign of a dedication to the city he called “his jewel”, Batts stayed on two months after it was announced the job in Oakland was his, to make sure that the LBPD’s new budget was passed. And while the difficulties of the future will belong to someone else, Batts will have his hands full in the Bay. Oakland’s budget problems make Long Beach’s seem recreational, and violent crime is more than twice as high, with three times as many homicides.

Entered Long Beach Fire Department: 1982
Took over as Chief: 2004
Major accomplishments:
• Opened two new fire stations and new department headquarters
• Aided in crucial safety improvements at the Port
• Put LBFD on cutting edge of early cancer detection and prevention strategies
• Recognized by NAACP, LA County Board of Supervisors, LB City Council for diverse hiring record
• Obtained numerous grants from federal government for department
• Transitioned fire stations to a more gender-equal environment

While Batts was a Los Angelino who came to love Long Beach, Ellis was born and raised in the city, graduating from Fremont Elementary, Rogers Junior High, and Wilson High School before attending CSULB. After joining the Fire Department in 1982, he quickly scaled the rungs, being promoted to Paramedic, Captain, Battalion Chief, and Assistant Chief, before being named in 2004 the 15th Chief in the department’s history.

Like Batts, Ellis has had budget issues to contend with from day one. “We provide a service that without a doubt can compete with any department in the country,” says Chief Ellis. “But we have to do it efficiently and cost effectively. So we’ve met our budget every year that I was Chief, even when we’ve had to clear major hurdles.”

Ellis brought a number of ideas to the table as Chief, including an emphasis on education and training that’s improved city safety, and prepared three members of his command staff to go on to Chief jobs in other departments. In response to the budget crunches, Ellis began looking for money from other sources.

“We became experts in finding where we could leverage grant dollars from the federal government,” he says, citing a grant he obtained that paid for state-of-the-art handheld radios. “At the time,” he remembers, “if I would have gone to city management and said, ‘I need a million dollars for portable radios,’ they would have looked at me like, ‘Where are you going to get that?’”

Reflecting on his career, the Chief says he’s proud of how his department has navigated budget issues, improved equipment, and educated the city government to the needs and functions of public safety service — but Mayor Foster says it would be a mistake to only remember Ellis as an excellent administrator.

When the Mayor arrived on the scene of the Paradise Gardens Apartment fire in North Long Beach three years ago, Ellis was already there — but he wasn’t wearing a dress shirt. “Here’s the chief,” says Foster, “dressed in a firefighting outfit full of grit and smoke, standing in the middle of the street — and he’s a firefighter, first and foremost. He’s in command, but he’s in there, working.”

Health troubles hampered Ellis in the latter portion of his time as Chief, and he spent some of 2009 on medical leave, including a portion of his final months in the position, while he assisted in the search for his replacement. “I feel like there’s so much more that I wanted to do, and I hate to leave,” he says. “But at the same time, I know it’s the right thing, and the right time. But when you love what you do, and you’ve worked around people for 30 years — leaving them, it leaves a big gap.”

In the wake of Ellis’ and Batts’ departure, Long Beach, too, is looking forward, to a future with many challenges, and two fewer proven leaders. Mayor Foster says that, as the city searches for its next leaders, the mark that both Batts and Ellis have made remains. “There are command staffs that have been trained well,” he says, “that have been able to carry both departments forward, without much worry about disruption.”