Los Angeles Police Department captain Richard Wemmer in 1996. Wemmer retired in 2008 after 40 years in law enforcement. (Julie Markes / Los Angeles Times / January 2, 1996)

The Dodgers have chosen former Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Rich Wemmer as their security chief, but are awaiting approval before they can finalize his hiring.

Major League Baseball, under the terms of the takeover of the team by the commissioner's office last week, must approve any expenditure or move costing more than $5,000. Commissioner Bud Selig on Monday appointed former Texas Rangers president Tom Schieffer to oversee the Dodgers' daily operations.

Schieffer is expected arrive in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The Dodgers' top security position has been vacant for four months and publicly became an issue when a San Francisco Giants fan was attacked and critically injured in the Dodger Stadium parking lot on opening day.

Wemmer, 63, a onetime Dodgers clubhouse attendant, has been offered the job, according to team officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the move isn't official.

The Dodgers settled on Wemmer after approaching numerous former LAPD command staffers and being turned down, according to law enforcement officials.

Wemmer, who retired from the LAPD in 2008 after nearly 40 years in law enforcement, was a commanding officer for the Rampart and Northeast patrol divisions and training divisions, as well as the Van Nuys, West Los Angeles and Wilshire-area stations.

Another of his selling points was that he served as the officer-in-charge of the anti-terrorist division's investigative unit during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Wemmer also served on the board of directors of the Command Officers Assn., which clashed repeatedly with then-Chief Bernard C. Parks in the late 1990s and early 2000s over a range of issues. Wemmer was one of three members who sued the department and Parks, alleging they were denied promotions as retaliation.

If approved by the league, Wemmer will take a position that has been vacant since December. That was when the Dodgers dismissed Ray Maytorena, a former Secret Service agent who had overseen the club's security operations.

In response to the fallout from the parking lot assault on opening day, the Dodgers hired former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton to develop a "security blueprint" for Dodger Stadium and the surrounding parking lots.