Deputy Police Chief Levant Will Retire : Law enforcement: The department’s former ‘drug czar’ will head the worldwide foundation of the DARE anti-drug program. A finalist for Gates’ job, he says Williams’ selection is not the reason he is leaving.

Deputy Chief Glenn A. Levant, once known as the Los Angeles Police Department’s “drug czar,” Thursday announced plans to retire to become the first worldwide executive director of DARE America, the nonprofit foundation that subsidizes the drug-education program.

The 30-year veteran’s retirement has been rumored since Willie L. Williams was named in April to succeed Daryl F. Gates as police chief. Levant, 51, was one of six finalists for the chief’s job.

Known for his relentless ambition and hard work, he was the only finalist absent from the news conference at which Williams’ appointment was announced.

At a Parker Center news conference Thursday, where Levant was flanked by his wife, Jayne, and Williams, the San Fernando Valley native denied that Williams’ selection is the reason he is leaving the 7,900-member police force.

“I’m leaving because I’m at the end of a 30-year career, and I’m working for a program I love,” said Levant, who has called the acclaimed anti-drug program his “one true passion.”

Levant said later that he has remained at his post in charge of the Police Department’s Operations West Bureau, which oversees police patrols in West Los Angeles, to help in the department’s transition under Williams. He said he sacrificed a cost-of-living increase in his pension by staying on the job past June 30.

He said that he expects his retirement to become effective at the end of this year or the beginning of next, but that he may leave earlier because of accumulated vacation time.

His departure will leave Williams with yet another vacancy on his command staff, but it will give the new chief another opportunity to replace one of Gates’ top aides.

Williams has said that he is committed to moving women and minorities into the department’s highest levels, and that he will seek out qualified candidates from Civil Service promotion lists.

All three of the department’s assistant chief positions are vacant, and four of the five deputy chiefs are Anglo men.

Williams, expected to name his command staff this fall, has asked the mayor and City Council to exempt the department from a citywide hiring freeze that has prevented him from making any promotions so far.

Levant said that if he leaves before Williams receives permission to fill vacancies, his second in command, Cmdr. Larry Fetters, will oversee the West Bureau.

Levant’s announcement follows an unusually high number of LAPD retirements over the last year.

Last month, 102 retirements were approved by the city’s Department of Pensions, compared with 50 in July, 1991. And 239 officers retired during the fiscal year ending June 30, compared with 188 the previous year, said James J. McGuigan, the Pension Department’s assistant manager.

McGuigan and other city officials have attributed the stream of retirements to a variety of factors, including the Rodney G. King beating, low officer morale and the departure of Gates. But they also noted that a four-year labor contract with a cost-of-living increase for pensions expired July 1, providing a big financial incentive for officers with 25 and 30 years of experience to retire.

Levant commanded the department’s anti-drug program from 1985 to 1991, and since then has spent much of his off-duty time volunteering for DARE America. The school curriculum, which started in Los Angeles in 1983, now teaches millions of children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Williams was noncommittal Thursday when asked whether he plans to reorganize the program, or replace sworn officers with civilians to boost his dwindling ranks of street patrols. DARE costs the Police Department $6.4 million a year, the bulk of it in salaries for 82 uniformed officers plus a captain, a lieutenant and eight sergeants.

“That’s a long-term decision,” said Williams, who like Gates has become a member of DARE America’s board of directors. “Right now, schools are saying that having uniformed officers in the classroom makes a difference.”