Valley’s Top Officer Will Seek Chief’s Job : Police: Mark A. Kroeker, a 26-year department veteran, says, ‘I honestly believe I can make a difference here.’

Deputy Los Angeles Police Chief Mark A. Kroeker, highest ranking officer in the San Fernando Valley, announced Thursday that he will apply for the police chief’s job, apparently becoming the first public candidate for the post.

Kroeker said he was motivated by “a clear idea of what I would do as chief,” including creating future police officers who would strike a balance between “gunfighter” and “social worker.”

With the announcement by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates that he will retire next year, many of the department’s top-ranking officers are expected to vie for his job, which involves supervising about 8,300 officers at a salary that ranges from $131,000 to $197,000 a year.

Although he has yet to submit his written application, due Nov. 22 to the city Personnel Department, Kroeker said in a telephone interview Thursday that his plans are “official in my own mind, I guess.”

“I just went through a series of questions, introspective types,” Kroeker said.

“The most important question I came to is: ‘What makes you think you can make an impact on this city?’ And the answer I came up with there is ‘because I have a vision.’ I have a clear idea of what I would do as chief, and so I honestly believe I can make a difference here.”

Kroeker said he views Los Angeles “as a pearl of the Pacific Rim, a place where people of all cultures and all walks of life are safe, or at least safer than we’ve been, and where we can exist in a harmonious relationship with one another.”

Kroeker, 47, took command of the Valley’s five patrol areas in March in the public uproar following the videotaped police beating of motorist Rodney G. King by officers from the Foothill Division in the northeastern Valley.

In an effort to restore public confidence in the Police Department, Kroeker has initiated a number of programs aimed at improving ties with the community. They include increasing the number of black and Latino officers in the Foothill Division; creating a committee to study relations between police and the Valley’s Latino residents; holding graffiti cleanup days in a program called “Operation Sparkle,” and sprucing up the public lobbies of police stations with furniture, plants and free coffee.

A 26-year department veteran, Kroeker has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Cal State L.A. and a master’s degree in international public administration from USC. He lives in the Santa Clarita Valley.

A panel of experts chosen by the Civil Service Commission will screen applicants for the chief’s job and choose 10 to 15 semifinalists who will compete in a series of interviews. The top six will go before the Los Angeles Police Commission, which will choose the next chief.