Cop Tears: Some Are of Joy . . .

The crowd of 800 spectators who gathered Friday at the Los Angeles Police Academy for graduation ceremonies witnessed a bit of history when Officer Brian McClary stepped up to the podium to receive his diploma.

McClary, 22, is carrying forward a tradition of more than 85 years of continuous service on the city’s police force by family members.

Eighty-three officers received diplomas during the early morning outdoor ceremony. Among the new officers are 23 women, 18 blacks, 29 Latinos, 6 Asian-Americans and a recruit of Filipino descent, one of the most diverse classes in academy history.

‘Spanned Generations’

Assistant Police Chief David Dotson welcomed the new officers and gave special acknowledgment to the McClary clan “whose long and rewarding history with the LAPD has spanned generations and will now continue.”

Among those reviewing the new officers was McClary’s father, retired LAPD Detective Sgt. Lou McClary, and his grandfather, S. L. McClary, a former Highway Patrol officer and retired chief of the Fillmore Police Department.

Lou McClary described the ceremony as one of the happiest events of his life.

“I choked,” Lou McClary said. “The closer he got to the reviewing stand, the more emotional I became. I thought to myself, ‘There he is, coming to carry on the tradition.’ It’s a thrill you can’t compare anything else with.”

For Brian McClary, the day was “awesome.” He said he remembers playing as a child at the academy where his father was an instructor for a time, and all the departmental picnics, and the plaque over the rear entrance of the academy that reads, ‘Through These Doors Pass the World’s Finest Police Officers.’

“I remember seeing that when I was younger and just staring at it,” Brian McClary said. “Whoever is responsible for that is really responsible for me being here. That’s when I decided to join the force.”

Brian McClary, who has three sisters and lives with his parents in Eagle Rock, said he was never pressured by his father to carry on the family tradition--he wanted to be a hockey player--but he concedes that becoming a policeman was always in the back of his mind.

How could it not be? he asked. The tradition started with Frank Abbott, Brian’s great-great grandfather who joined the department in 1900 and whose daughter married Louis L. McClary, who had joined the force in 1906. Louis’ brother, George S. McClary, joined the department in 1907, retiring in 1928 as a captain. Sister Julia became the second female police officer in the state and the first woman on the Long Beach police force when she joined that department in 1916.

Her son Raleigh R. Coppage joined the LAPD in 1924, retiring as a detective in 1959. Lou McClary joined the department in 1955, and Brian’s mother, Judith, began working with the LAPD in 1961 as a clerk-typist and is now a police services representative at the Hollywood Station.

The 1984 departmental yearbook devotes a page to the family, calculating that family members have accumulated more than 240 years of employment in law enforcement, more than half with the LAPD. All told there are more than 25 brothers, sisters and cousins working in some law-enforcement capacity, including Brian’s Uncle Mike McClary, a captain in the Santa Monica Police Department.

Lou McClary notes that his son’s first assignment--morning watch at the 77th Street Station--will keep him in familiar territory. “That area is where mom and dad lived--where I was raised,” McClary said.

Brian McClary, who is single, said it would be “neat” if it happened somehow that his children decided to join the force, carrying forward the tradition. But he will not push them in that direction and, besides, that is the future and right now he just wants to enjoy the moment.

“What a story,” he said. “Just to think that from the 1900s somebody in the family has worked in the department. I was born and raised in Los Angeles. What better place or better profession to have a career?”