Los Angeles, California — Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, a 32-year LAPD veteran, has been chosen to replace Chief William Bratton, the L.A. mayor’s office said Tuesday.

Bratton’s resignation was announced in August and became effective Saturday. He will be taking a job training police in developing nations. He was the top police official in New York and his native Boston before taking the job at the corruption-riddled LAPD.

Charlie Beck, who is chief of detectives, is seen as a “progressive reformer” – a description that stems from the approach the “father of modern policing” – August Vollmer – took towards policing.

Beck, 56, joined the LAPD in 1977, beginning as a patrol officer in the Rampart area and was part of the department’s anti-gang CRASH unit. He was assigned by Bratton to clean up the troubled Rampart Division.

Law enforcement is a family tradition for the Becks. His father, George Beck, was a LAPD deputy police chief, and his daughter is a Hollywood area patrol officer. His wife, Cindy, retired as a deputy with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and his son, Martin Beck, is set to graduate next month from the Los Angeles Police Academy.