Baltimore Looking at Chief Oliver for Top Job : Law enforcement: He’s one of four finalists for the commissioner’s post. His candidacy is not indicative of any disenchantment with Pasadena, he says.

Police Chief Jerry Oliver is one of four candidates being considered to head Baltimore’s 2,900-member police force.

Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is expected to choose his police commissioner by the end of the month. The other three candidates are San Jose Deputy Chief of Police Thomas C. Frazier; New York Assistant Chief Joseph R. Leake, and St. Petersburg, Fla., police academy director Mack M. Vines. The post pays $93,000 a year.

Baltimore officials “asked for my permission to put my resume in the hopper,” Oliver said Thursday. “They said it would be a national search. I’m surprised and honored that I’m one of the finalists.”

Oliver added that his candidacy does not mean that he has become disenchanted with Pasadena, where he has established himself as a respected proponent of community policing, but where he has also experienced some job frustrations.

“I’m as committed as when I first showed up,” said Oliver, 46, who came to Pasadena 2 1/2 years ago from Phoenix. “But this would allow me to take my ideas about community policing to a whole different level.

“In Baltimore, you’re close to Washington and close to the White House. And being the police commissioner allows you to speak to the entire (law enforcement) industry.”

City officials, who are preparing for eight World Cup games in the Rose Bowl next summer, were stunned at the prospect of losing Oliver, who is in the midst of elaborate security preparations for the soccer championship tournament.

“I told him I wish him all the luck in the world, and I hope he comes in second in Baltimore,” Mayor Rick Cole said.

The Baltimore Police Department recently has been battered by allegations of corruption in several of its districts, questionable shootings and charges of racial favoritism in hiring and promotions.

George N. Buntin Jr., executive director of the Baltimore chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said Schmoke, who is black, is looking to hire a commissioner who will be sensitive to the needs of the community.

Schmoke could not be reached for comment.

Said Buntin: “We made tremendous progress, but division between the African American community and the police is still there. Fueled by efforts to stem crime, the police have come in with more force than they need to because they don’t know the people they are policing, and they are fearful. You can’t blame them for being fearful.

“Our preference is that the new police chief be an African American. We have not pressured the mayor. Many of us will be disappointed if it’s not an African American, but we won’t be upset.”

Oliver and Leake are black.

“Crime is so bad here, the people are fed up,” said Leander S. Nevin, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents officers in Baltimore, where the homicide toll this year is approaching last year’s record of 335 murders.

“The people don’t care who they pick, black or white,” Nevin said in a telephone interview. “We need more than an administrator. We need a leader. He doesn’t have to be a Clint Eastwood type of a cop. As long as he knows the nuts and bolts of working on the streets . . .”

Oliver would seem to fit that mold. He has been an outspoken advocate of the notion that his 221 sworn police officers should touch the lives of the people they serve in Pasadena, rather than being “the blur that went by in a police car.”

He arrived after a distinguished career in Phoenix, where he rose from foot patrol officer to assistant chief, boasting that he had never fired his service revolver in the line of duty.

“I’ve been blessed with the ability to talk my way out of volatile situations,” he said.

Oliver quickly established himself as someone who was cool under fire, helping to extinguish in Pasadena the sparks of rebellion after the not-guilty verdicts last year in the state trial of four Los Angeles officers charged with beating Rodney G. King.

But he has been stymied in carrying out some of his ideas, such as placing civilians on disciplinary boards that hear complaints about police officers. The Pasadena Police Officers Assn., which represents rank-and-file officers, has blocked the proposal with legal action.

Though the Baltimore job would represent a large jump in responsibility--the department is more than 10 times as big as Pasadena’s--it would not necessarily mean more money: Oliver currently earns more than $100,000 annually, about $10,000 more than Baltimore is offering.

The salary offered in Baltimore, however, has been described as negotiable.

“It’s not necessarily for the money,” Oliver said. “It’s a career opportunity. I’d be foolish to ignore opportunities that come to me.”