SWAT or Not? : Officer Who Realized Her Dream of Joining LAPD’s Elite Says Offer May Be Too Little, Too Late

From the day the Special Weapons and Tactics officers visited her class at the Police Academy in 1983, Nina Damianakes says, she set her sights on joining their ranks.

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The officers who came to the academy that afternoon emphasized the deep seriousness of SWAT’s mission: No unit is more important to the LAPD, and none requires more of its officers. The training is intense and constant. At SWAT, any failure, no matter how small, can leave a person dead.

Damianakes, a driven young officer fresh out of college, was deeply impressed, and she says that from that moment on she dedicated her career to becoming a part of the LAPD’s most elite cadre. History did not favor her chances: Since the unit was created in the early 1970s, the 60-officer contingent has never included a woman.

“When I came on the job, I realized it was mostly a man’s Police Department,” she said in an interview last week. “But I’ve always been able to prove myself. . . . I was not going to be denied.”

In the meantime, she put off having children, passed up opportunities for promotions and turned down offers to accept other prestigious assignments. Now--11 years, two rigorous tests and two lawsuits later--Damianakes may soon see her goal fulfilled.

On Wednesday, the LAPD acknowledged problems with its SWAT testing procedures and ruled in favor of Damianakes’ grievance against the department, finding that she did indeed deserve a place in SWAT.

As of Thursday, Damiankes, 34, was still debating whether to accept the city’s offer. She said a doctor who has been seeing her for stress has advised her against joining SWAT right away. And though she is pleased to see the LAPD acknowledge problems with the evaluation of the tests, she remains angered by the entire experience.

“Sure, it’s tempting,” Damianakes said of the LAPD offer. “However, it’s too little, too late.”

Whatever Damianakes decides, the mere offer of a job in SWAT sets her apart from every female officer who has gone before her. And it reflects a career in which she has risen to some of the LAPD’s most prestigious positions, winning the praise of colleagues and supervisors--and even persuading her once-skeptical husband, self-described “good ol’ boy” and fellow Metro officer Mike Damianakes, that women do belong in the LAPD’s most challenging jobs.

Not everyone agrees that SWAT should have welcomed Nina Damianakes. Thursday, a number of SWAT officers grumbled that the department was making a mistake by caving in to her complaints, privately grousing that the move would dilute SWAT’s historically challenging entrance requirements and could even endanger the safety of SWAT officers.

But even among many of those who stand by the SWAT testing procedures, there is widespread praise for Damianakes, a former college athlete who exercises rigorously.

“She’s one of the finest police officers I know,” said former Chief Daryl F. Gates, whose security contingent included Damianakes for a time. “She’s a top-notch athlete, a top-notch police officer, a top-notch person.”

Damianakes’ personnel evaluations, copies of which were obtained by The Times, echo that praise.

“Damianakes’ work performance during this rating period can only be classified as outstanding,” her supervisors wrote in 1991. “She has continued to complete all of her assigned duties in an exemplary manner.”

In 1992 and 1993, the reports were equally glowing: “Officer Damianakes is a self-starter requiring a minimal amount of supervision. She is a highly competent police officer who conveys a very positive professional image. . . . Nina is a definite asset to Metropolitan Division and the department.”

In every evaluation, Damianakes’ supervisors noted her determination to join SWAT, and they encouraged her to apply. Several added that they felt she would make the unit.

As Damianakes well knew, however, outstanding ratings are not enough to open the door to SWAT. SWAT’s requirements are the highest and most strictly maintained in the LAPD.

After all, there’s a saying at the LAPD: “Only the best make Metro. And only the best in Metro make SWAT.” In the history of the department, only one other woman has been deemed qualified to take the SWAT test.

So when Damianakes was selected from the Metro ranks as one of 20 officers authorized to participate in a 1990 SWAT test, she launched herself on an intense training regimen. Some nights, she said, she awoke in a panic that she had skipped one of her exercises. She would elbow her husband, and the two of them would pile out of bed to do sit-ups.

By the time the test rolled around, she was convinced that she was ready.

She and her fellow SWAT candidates endured a grueling five-day test, most of which took place at Camp Pendleton and which demanded that the candidates rappel, shoot, run an obstacle course and complete a complicated land navigation course, among other things. At the end, Damianakes returned home bruised, cut, exhausted--and confident that she had earned a spot.

Too nervous to call for the results herself, she asked her husband to check for her.

“I could tell from the sound of his voice that I hadn’t made it,” she said, her voice quaking slightly at the memory. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Mike Damianakes was not as surprised. He admits that he believed in officers paying their dues--even if they were unfairly turned down for jobs they deserved. “I feel kind of like a jerk buying into the system all those years,” he said. “I did.”

Although stunned to have been passed over, Nina Damianakes said she did not sulk over the 1990 rejection.

“We went for a long run the next day,” Mike Damianakes said.

“To get ready for the next time,” Nina Damianakes added.

But she fared no better when she retook the test in 1993. That time, according to LAPD officials, she ranked 19th out of 20 in her group.

Nina Damianakes never complained the test was unfair, never suggested women be judged by a different standard. She maintains she excelled on the test but was marked down simply because she is a woman. “I do not want SWAT to change anything about what they do,” she said. “I just want to be judged fairly, and I wasn’t.”

Until this week, the department disagreed. But in granting her grievance, the LAPD acknowledged that there were problems with the test it administered. It did not find that she had been discriminated against, but it did acknowledge that some aspects of its tests were “insufficiently job-related and possibly (have) a disparate impact on female candidates.” Future tests were suspended, at least until test researchers can study them and determine whether they are fair. And Damianakes, after 11 years of hoping and three years of testing, was offered the spot she says she always wanted.

In her view, though, the department has not gone far enough.

“They’re still not admitting that there was gender bias in my case,” she said. “I completed everything. I did anything they asked, I completed every requirement, and I still was denied a position.”