Deputy Chief to Quit LAPD for U.N. Post

Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, who was passed over for the department’s top job two months ago despite the overwhelming support of rank-and-file officers, said Monday he is retiring to accept a job with the United Nations’ peacekeeping effort in Bosnia.

After 32 years with the LAPD, Kroeker--one of the best-known and most-liked LAPD officials--will become deputy commissioner of the United Nations’ International Police Task Force in Bosnia, responsible for supervising and restructuring the country’s war-ravaged police agencies.

“Chief Kroeker assumes a leading and critical role in the international community’s efforts to help the people of Bosnia restore peace and justice to their troubled land,” Robert S. Gelbard, the U.S. special envoy to Bosnia, said at a news conference held at the Los Angeles Police Academy. “Both he and I agree that police can and must be a leading instrument of social change in Bosnia.”

Kroeker, who says he has received about a half-dozen job offers since being bypassed for the chief’s job in August, called the United Nations appointment the first that truly appealed to him.

“I’m leaving with contentment. A great career is not finishing for me; it’s just a transition,” Kroeker told reporters, acknowledging, however, that he felt a “little sadness” about leaving the LAPD.

Nonetheless, Kroeker has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with his role in the LAPD’s administration led by new Chief Bernard C. Parks.

From the location of his office and parking space, to what he viewed as limited responsibilities in his assignment as special assistant to the chief, Kroeker, 53, has told friends and colleagues that he has felt ostracized. For the past two months, however, Kroeker has pledged to work with Parks.

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As well as being a major life change for Kroeker, the resignation has an impact on Parks’ administration.

Faced, as many business executives are, with the decision of whether to entice a talented high-level subordinate to stay, Parks instead made moves that seemed to encourage Kroeker to leave, department observers said.

The new chief rejected a suggestion from Mayor Richard Riordan--who selected Parks--to make Kroeker, also a finalist, the LAPD’s second in command. Instead, Parks assigned Kroeker the task of organizing a new mode of policing in the LAPD and monitoring the city’s charter reform, but put no divisions or commands under his control.

“It was a slap in the face to Kroeker that he didn’t receive a command,” said Dennis Zine, a director with the Los Angeles Police Protective League. “But the chief is the chief and he’s going to do what he wishes. . . . We’re losing a unique leader.”

Parks said Monday, when questioned by reporters after a City Council committee meeting, that Kroeker’s departure is a loss to the LAPD. But some insiders point out that it eliminates a potential threat to the new chief’s leadership, because of Kroeker’s popularity among the rank and file. According to a union poll, they favored Kroeker for the chief’s job by a 3-to-1 margin.

“His leaving is no surprise,” said one department insider.

Kroeker sidestepped any discussion about his disappointment over not winning the chief’s job or his role under Parks, saying he did not want to dwell on the past.

“Misery is optional,” he said. “I’m not leaving anything, I’m going to something with a good positive outlook. . . . This is something that I can pursue as a cause, as a calling.”

It was a decision Parks said he understood.

“He’s always been interested in dealing with issues with very large bases,” Parks said. “It’s a disappointment that we have a very talented individual who is moving on.”

Police Commission President Edith Perez agreed, saying that the LAPD’s loss “is the United Nations’ great gain.” But she said that nobody at the LAPD is “indispensable” and that the department “won’t lose a beat.”

“We’re moving ahead with the reorganization and so many new initiatives,” she said. “There’s a renewed enthusiasm at the department that I haven’t seen before.”

In his new job, Kroeker will be charged with restructuring all of Bosnia’s police forces, transforming them from an “instrument of state control to an institution dedicated to serving the citizenry,” Gelbard said.

Despite his excitement for the job, Kroeker--who headed commands in the San Fernando Valley and South-Central Los Angeles--confessed to feeling some trepidation over the assignment, which is expected to last about a year.

“I think that if I weren’t afraid in some measure of what I’m about to encounter, I would be less than honest. It’s an enormous undertaking. The complexities are unbelievable,” Kroeker said.

The chief challenge in the war-torn country, Gelbard said, will be ensuring that all Bosnians “regardless of their ethnic backgrounds or religious persuasion . . . live in freedom and security wherever they choose to.”

Kroeker will leave for Sarajevo in about 10 days and will replace David Kriskovich, who was killed in a helicopter accident a month ago, Gelbard said.

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For Kroeker, the son of Mennonite missionaries who was raised in the Belgian Congo and Europe before coming to the United States, the Bosnian assignment is similar to work he did in Haiti several years ago. There, he helped that country’s leaders restructure their police agencies.

After his tour in Bosnia, Kroeker said, he will consider working in “other hot spots” around the world or may even come back to work in law enforcement. He even suggested that he might run for the Los Angeles County sheriff’s job when Sherman Block, who last week officially announced he would seek reelection next year, ultimately decides to step down.

“Right now, I’m looking at one project at a time,” Kroeker said.