Never Too Late for a New Beat : Police: At 59, laid-off aerospace worker finds his second wind as LAPD’s oldest rookie officer ever.

By age 59, most people are looking forward to retirement, to a time when they can reap the benefits of their life’s work and reflect on the strange twists and turns along the way.

But at 59, rookie Police Officer Edward Olivares has caught a second wind and is looking forward to the strange twists and turns that still lie ahead. On Sunday, he took the first step of his second career as the Los Angeles Police Department’s oldest rookie ever.

“I found out that LAPD was hiring and that my age was not a barrier, and I said to myself, ‘This is something that I can be proud of for the rest of my life,’ ” Olivares said Sunday as he lifted weights before his first patrol in the Foothill Division.

Olivares’ new career is possible because of a 1992 decision by the Los Angeles Police Commission to abolish the department’s upper age limit of 34 for new recruits. The change was made to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.

His graduation last week from the Police Academy was the culmination of two years of physical training to transform himself from a short, fat, laid-off defense worker to what he calls a “lean machine.”

Since he left aerospace in December, 1990, Olivares has shed 65 pounds of fat, replacing at least part of it with 20 pounds of muscle. He now weighs 175 pounds. In between, the West Point graduate finished a cooking course at the famed Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, but found chef jobs even scarcer than positions in aerospace.

His workout Sunday was overrun by reporters, cameramen and even a few fellow officers who stopped by just to watch the media spectacle.

After he was laid off from his job as a project leader, Olivares began working out. Starting slowly, he built up his endurance until his daily workout included running five miles, swimming 20 laps in a 30-foot pool at his Calabasas condo and lifting weights for 90 minutes.

Olivares is careful to point out that he is not a power lifter, that he trains more for endurance and conditioning than the abdominal cuts and physiques developed by gym rats.

“I’m way past the time of being Mr. Universe,” he conceded.

To some of his fellow officers, though, Olivares’ transformation from fat to fit and his drive to survive the academy are nothing short of a miracle.

“I just watched him up in the weight room and it was impressive,” said 23-year veteran Sgt. Al Yarbrough, the day watch commander at the station. “People are kind of in awe of this guy because we went through the academy in our 20s, and it was tough.”

It was tough for Olivares too. He failed the self-defense skills test and a hearing test the first time around, but passed both on his second try.

“I wanted to make it,” he said. “There was never a time when I felt like quitting.”

In fact, in the first few weeks of his 28-week academy training, Olivares told his classmates that no one could quit until he did.

One of the biggest obstacles to becoming a police officer at his age was his wife, Barbara. Not that she wanted to stand in the way of his dream, but she was concerned for his safety in the job--particularly after the death of Christy Lynne Hamilton, the 45-year-old rookie who was shot and killed on duty last February.

Olivares said his wife acquiesced when he explained that the statistical odds of dying in a freeway crash were higher than being killed as a police officer.

For the past three weeks, Olivares has ridden along with veteran officers to get a feel for the streets. Once, he drew his weapon, but only in a backup role.

On another ride-along, he and his partner responded to a domestic violence call where the house was on a hill, away from other structures. Aware of the problems that come with approaching an isolated structure without cover or backup, the officers clung to a brick wall as they approached the house. His partner then made a 30-yard dash to a nearby tree while Olivares served as lookout.

“It turned out to be a non-event,” he said. “The wife was the only one home.”

As in the other aspects of his life, Olivares said he plans to move up quickly in the ranks of the Police Department. Even as he anticipated his first day on patrol, he acknowledged that his days on the streets are numbered.

“I don’t expect to be on patrol in the streets for that long,” Olivares said. “I want to try to get into detectives as soon as the department allows. I want to use my analytical and report-writing capabilities.”

Others think he will succeed.

“I think the guy should get a fair shot,” Yarbrough said of the rookie’s ambitions. “Probably about one-third of the people who make detective or sergeant have only four or five years on the job. It’s a reasonable expectation.”