The day John Timoney was sworn in as Miami police chief in 2003, 11 of his troops stood trial for concocting evidence and planting guns in a spate of shootings. Seven would be convicted.

Within two years, Timoney's administration would clean up the mess, turning a sometimes trigger-happy force into one where no officer fired a weapon for 20 months. Bad cops were punished. Crime dipped.

Now the chief finds himself in a very public political fight, with his Miami career on the line. Tomás Regalado, ushered in as mayor in a landslide Tuesday, wants the chief out and says he'll keep pressing until he is.

Timoney is standing firm.

``I love it here,'' Timoney, 61, said in an interview before Tuesday's election. ``I've had a great time. We have lots of work to do, lots of plans.''

It's the first showdown of the new Miami administration, pitting a political naysayer who rose to office on a tide of public discontent against a nationally known police chief not shy to tangle.

Pressed to elaborate on the potential riff, Timoney would say no more. ``You underestimate the Irish for stubbornness,'' he said.

CAREER BEGINNINGS

Timoney's path to Miami came by way of some of the nation's toughest neighborhoods. At 13, he moved from Ireland to New York City's hard-scrabble Washington Heights, where he changed his name from Sean to John to help him fit in.

He found his vocation after high school, doing clerical work with the New York City Police Department. Two years later, in 1969, he was a beat cop.

Timoney rose through the ranks quickly, becoming the city's youngest four-star chief, and was later named first deputy commissioner under Chief William Bratton.

But in the Big Apple, his dream job never materialized: When Bratton had a falling-out with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Timoney was ignored.

So he headed to Philadelphia, where he was appointed police commissioner in 1997. Corruption plagued the department. Crime was rising. Timoney implemented more training for officers and transformed the internal affairs bureau.

``People here still talk about John,'' said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, who has known Timoney since his NYPD days.

By 2002, Timoney was gone. When Bratton again beat him out for a job -- this time as Los Angeles' top cop -- Timoney spent a year as a chief executive for a large security firm in New York.

Boredom set in, he said.

``It's the end of November. I'm freezing my ass off,'' the chief recalled.

Then came a call from Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.

His reply: ``I'll be down next week.''

`FRESH PERSPECTIVE'

He weighed the move as Miami searched for answers after a string of tourist robberies and murders that drew international attention.

Scandal did, too. When members of a ``rogue'' elite police squad known as the ``Jump Out Boys'' were accused by the feds of questionable shootings and coverups, then-City Manager Carlos Gimenez looked for an outsider.

``We needed a fresh perspective,'' said Gimenez.

In Timoney, Diaz said he found an acclaimed chief who on one hand could come across as a gruff Irish cop -- but on the other lectured at Amherst and other New England colleges on Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment.

``When you work with him, you find he's really . . . a civil libertarian. He's a `step back and let's figure out how to stop this from escalating' type of guy,'' Diaz said.