'I don't envy my successor'

Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole announced yesterday that she will step down to help oversee the national police in Ireland, ending a tumultuous tenure and leaving the post at a time of tight city finances, escalating violence, and calls from community leaders for more police presence.

''I'm not used to leaving a job at a difficult time," she told the Globe last night. ''But the past 27 months have been a difficult time. It's never a good time in this job."

O'Toole's departure, expected around July 1, puts significant pressure on Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who must decide whether an internal or outside candidate is best suited to tackle the wave of gun violence facing the city.

''I don't envy the mayor, and I don't envy my successor," O'Toole said in the interview.

The mayor said he was not worried about a change or vacuum in police leadership on the eve of what police believe will be a bloody summer. He declined to say how or when he plans to choose an interim commissioner or successor, but said he intends to put together a plan soon.

Candidates being debated behind closed doors at City Hall include police superintendents Robert Dunford, who handled security for the Democratic National Convention, and Paul Joyce, who oversees elite squads, including the drug, gang, and homicide units.

According to the Police Department's line of succession, if Menino doesn't name a successor before O'Toole leaves, Dunford, who heads all patrol officers, would be acting commissioner.

O'Toole said she received a letter yesterday from the Irish government offering her the nomination for inspector general of the 12,000-member Garda Siochana. Her nomination is expected to be presented for approval to Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland at a Cabinet meeting next week.

''It's a phenomenal opportunity I never expected," O'Toole said.

Her announcement ended days of speculation about her future amid a crime wave that left seven people dead last week. There have been nearly double the number of shootings in the city so far this year, compared with the same period last year.

O'Toole met privately with Menino hours before the two held a joint press conference at City Hall to announce her decision. The mayor called her a ''good ambassador to neighborhoods" and someone he could rely on during tough times.

''It's a blow to me personally and professionally," the mayor said at the press conference. ''I've had a lot of trust in Commissioner O'Toole."

Some longtime friends and allies of the two said, however, that Menino and O'Toole have had an increasingly strained relationship in recent months, mainly because of tight budgets and the rising violence.

Menino had begun to question the commissioner's day-to-day running of the department while she was out smoothing relationships with community members and police union officials, according to one person who had spoken to Menino about his concerns and a second person close to both the mayor and the commissioner.

''She wasn't focused enough on what [the mayor] thought were the underlying issues: the crime, the violence," said the second person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

An especially sore point was O'Toole's public call for hundreds more police officers on the eve of Menino's reelection bid in November, although Menino had said the city could afford to hire only a small number, the two said.

The lack of reinforcements and what she saw as micromanaging frustrated O'Toole, according to two longtime friends who said she told them about the situation.

The final straw came last month, when she had to pull about a dozen cadets out of the Boston Police Academy because City Hall told her there would not be enough money to hire them, said the friends, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

''Kathy was at wit's end," one of the friends said. ''She said, 'I wasn't looking [for another job] before, but I am now.' "

In the interview yesterday evening, O'Toole downplayed any tension between her and the mayor, though she said managing the department with limited resources has been a struggle. ''I haven't had $1 of discretionary income this past year," she said.

O'Toole, who turned 52 yesterday, is the first woman to hold the top police job in Boston. She has served as commissioner since February 2004 and has dealt with crisis after crisis since she took over, including wrongful convictions blamed on poor police investigations and the fatal police shooting of Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove in October 2004.

But she has also instituted a number of initiatives. She overhauled the department's payroll system, stamping out loopholes that allowed officers to be paid for working in two places at once and enabling officials to track overtime and court costs.

To prevent wrongful convictions, O'Toole overhauled interrogation techniques and witness identification procedures. She also led the department during the Democratic National Convention in 2004, when police arrested fewer than a dozen people, despite predictions of street protests and gridlock.

She adopted the intelligence-gathering procedures used during the convention, creating a regional intelligence center that she said has drawn the attention of federal officials reviewing it as a possible national model for local and state homeland security practices.

Reaction to O'Toole's resignation was mixed among community leaders yesterday. Some said the Police Department needs an overhaul, while others said the commissioner did a great job and said they worried what her loss will do to her initiatives.

''The bottom line is I believe that Kathy had garnered community support and respect," said Darnell Williams, president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. ''She had a shortage of officers, an emerging crime wave, and challenges associated with getting to the root causes for stemming that. I think it's a tremendous loss for Boston."

Some community leaders said that no matter what she did, O'Toole was in a virtually impossible situation, trying to please residents and her bosses.

''Like any job, you make requests to your boss to provide you with the necessary tools and resources to do your job, and if you don't have them, you're still held accountable to do your job," said Jorge Martinez, executive director of Project RIGHT, a Grove Hall nonprofit and frequent partner of police. ''It's a lose-lose situation."

Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.