Pioneer of Community Policing Has New Challenge : Law enforcement: Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, who launched highly praised project in the Valley, will direct LAPD’s operations in inner city.

Deputy Los Angeles Police Chief Mark A. Kroeker, praised for implementing community policing programs and restoring faith in the much-criticized department, will leave his post as the San Fernando Valley’s top police official next week to assume command of LAPD operations in south Los Angeles.

In announcing the transfer late Wednesday, Police Chief Willie L. Williams said he wants Kroeker to duplicate his success with community-based policing in the Valley in some of Los Angeles’ toughest inner-city neighborhoods.

“Throughout his career, Kroeker has displayed a commitment to community service, and has worked diligently to forge a partnership between police and Valley residents to address the area’s very important public safety needs,” Williams said in a prepared statement.

Kroeker, 49, begins the latest assignment in his 29-year LAPD career on Monday, filling a vacancy left six months ago by the retirement of Deputy Chief Matthew Hunt. He will be replaced in the Valley by newly appointed Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy, 47, a 24-year veteran who has been the department’s employee relations administrator.

Kroeker said Wednesday that he regrets leaving because he has many strong ties in the Valley. But he said he understands Williams’ reasons for assigning him to south Los Angeles, where residents’ mistrust of police still runs deep 2 1/2 years after the Rodney G. King beating.

Kroeker took command of the Valley’s five patrol areas and 1,500 officers in March, 1991, a week after King was beaten in Lake View Terrace in the northwestern Valley. Hostility between the public and the police was at an all-time high, but Kroeker quickly impressed many blacks and Latinos by listening to their concerns and keeping his promises.

“He told us certain things he was going to do, and he did just that,” recalled the Rev. Curry McKinney, leader of the largely African-American Ministers Fellowship of the San Fernando Valley and Vicinity, formerly known as the Valley Ministers Alliance.

Kroeker brought more minorities to Valley police stations, especially the Pacoima-based Foothill Division, in which the King beating took place. He put black and Latino officers in supervisory positions as well as in patrol cars. He made sure there were Spanish-speakers at every front desk to greet the public and soon set up the pilot community policing project that would seal his reputation.

An increasingly popular style of law enforcement, community policing emphasizes crime prevention by working with civilians. Kroeker assigned 30 officers to spend their time meeting with residents and merchants and organizing more Neighborhood Watch groups.