Assistant Chief John Brooks has joined Broward
County Sheriff's Office as a captain

 BY ARNOLD MARKOWITZ AND JOHNNY DIAZ
 

 John Brooks, the Miami assistant police chief who rode with INS agents when they
 took Elian Gonzalez away, took another job Friday.

 Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne appointed Brooks, 47, a captain and assistant
 director of the strategic investigations division at the Broward Sheriff's Office.

 The division's beats are organized crime, public corruption, narcotics and vice.
 Brooks' scheduled starting day is May 30.

 `It's going to be a wonderful challenge,'' said Brooks, a Miami native who has
 lived for 22 years in Cooper City. ``It's the kind of work I like, and I've got a
 tremendous background in that area.''

 Brooks' 25-year police career includes assignments in patrol, supervision,
 homicide detection, street narcotics, administration, and leadership in criminal
 and special investigations. He joined the Miami department in 1975 and has been
 an assistant chief since July 13, 1994.

 Jenne made Friday's announcement, saying he had his eye on Brooks since
 Brooks applied for the chief's job in Hollywood last year. Al Lamberti, a major
 Jenne loaned to Hollywood as temporary chief, spoke well of Brooks.

 ``I was very impressed with him,'' Jenne said.

 ``Everyone walks away with what a great guy he is, what a good leader, what a
 positive person.''

 Jenne and Brooks began talking in earnest about a job switch after the raid to
 return Elian Gonzalez to his father. Brooks, in uniform, rode in the lead van that
 night to escort INS agents past city police lines. Chief William O'Brien, who sent
 him, was harshly criticized for it by Mayor Joe Carollo. So was Brooks. O'Brien
 quit April 29, saying he did not want to be chief under Carollo.

 Brooks did not want to talk about politics Friday.

 ``Miami has been very good to me,'' he said. ``I was born and raised here. I love
 the city. I love the people in the city. This is an opportunity to work for an
 organization that's professional and has a tremendous reputation, and to go into a
 job I really like.''

 The Elian affair still occupies him. He spent most of Friday afternoon in a Miami
 police staff meeting, planning what to do when a federal appeals court makes its
 ruling on the child's eligibility for political asylum.

 Brooks has been inquiring about other jobs at least since 1997, when he applied
 to be police chief of Coral Gables. Since then he has been a finalist for chief in
 Sunny Isles Beach and Hollywood. It is common for high-ranking police
 executives nearing retirement eligibility to seek such jobs.

 ``When those opportunities came up, it seemed like it was what I wanted to do at
 the time,'' Brooks said. ``I didn't apply for every opening. It's not something where I
 have to be a chief of police. I look at an opportunity and evaluate it, and when this
 came open it seemed like such a positive thing -- the right thing at the right time,
 and in the right place.''

 Brooks is listed on the Miami police payroll at $47.37 an hour, or $98,529 in a
 year of 40-hour weeks. In Broward, he will be paid $84,200 a year, a drop of about
 $14,000.

 ``I have a retirement to supplement that,'' he said. ``I'm not a money person. It's
 the job. That job's so exciting, and I'm looking so forward to going up there to
 contribute.'' Miami's public information office said Chief Raul Martinez has not
 decided on a replacement for Brooks. He has another assistant chief and a
 deputy chief.