Serving as an Example

Maybe one day, Los Angeles Police Capt. Candace Brady says hopefully, this won’t be such a novelty. Maybe there will be many more women in the top ranks of the nation’s third-largest police department.

Then other women won’t have to be pioneers like Brady: the first woman vice detective, the first woman prosecutor at Internal Affairs and now, one of only three women captains citywide.

Brady is the Los Angeles Police Department’s only female patrol captain and the highest-ranking woman in the San Fernando Valley.

“We’ve come a long way,” says Brady, 44, who is now assigned to the Devonshire station. “But we still have some work to do.”

Twenty years after graduating from the Police Academy, one of only three women in the class, Brady believes she has a moral obligation to “set an example--not only for women but for all officers.”

Sitting in her new office, with framed pictures still propped against the walls and jazz music playing, Brady said setting an example “is your duty” as officers move up in rank.

Brady says she knows firsthand the trials of being a woman officer in the LAPD, which has been criticized recently for its handling of discrimination and sexual harassment complaints.

“There were things I endured that I would never put up with now,” said Brady, who was raised in Reseda.

Nonetheless, Brady says attitudes toward women in the department are no different than those in other professions. “It’s not exclusive to the LAPD.”

The latest department statistics show that women make up about 1,600 of the LAPD’s nearly 9,300 officers, or 17%. Brady belonged to a tiny minority when she started in 1977. Women held only 2% of LAPD jobs even 15 years ago.

Brady has held a variety of jobs, including undercover narcotics. She began work before she even graduated from the academy, recruited as a decoy in the Hillside Strangler murder investigation. The LAPD set her up in an apartment with unlocked screen doors as bait for Angelo Buono, a Glendale upholsterer who was later caught and convicted of nine murders.

“My mom wasn’t happy about it . . . but I had Metro [undercover officers] tailing me, even on my days off,” she said.

Brady spent last year as a lieutenant in the Valley’s Internal Affairs office, a tough assignment because of increased public scrutiny over the policing of officers’ conduct. Brady acknowledged that officers who are skeptical of those working Internal Affairs might greet her with some suspicion.

She said the experience only strengthened her belief in strong discipline and high standards.

“I am pretty hard-line when it comes to doing your job and doing it right,” she said. “I don’t compromise much on that . . . but I’m open to hearing new ideas and trying to do things differently.”

She said she constantly discusses police work with her husband, the police chief of Novato, a city in Marin County. They have a commuter marriage, she said, seeing each other twice a month. During the past weekend, her first on the job, Brady was called to a crime scene at 1:30 a.m. It was his turn to visit.

“He understands,” she said, smiling.

Brady’s promotion comes just three months after Capt. Betty Kelepecz was promoted to commander--the LAPD’s first woman to hold that rank.

While the department has been criticized for failing to promote women to its highest ranks, it has earned praise for hiring large numbers of women.

People outside the department speak glowingly of Brady’s trailblazing career path.

“I’m always pleased when I see a woman promoted, especially in an agency that is really behind in promoting women,” said Penny Harrington, director of the National Center for Women in Policing and former chief of the Portland Police Department in Oregon. “This certainly helps.”

Such promotions are more than just fair play. Studies of women officers show they are less confrontational and more interested in mediating disputes than their male colleagues.

“I would expect to see her doing more community work around crime problems, bringing everyone to the table to get their problems solved,” said Harrington.

Indeed, Brady says she hopes to increase community involvement. She also wants to boost department morale, which she says is sagging after several years of criticism.

To that end, Brady wants to keep a tally of when officers refrain from using deadly force. “We tend to dwell on the negative,” she said. “I think we need to start accentuating the positive.”

Brady intends to get to know the 100 officers in her command, keep an open-door policy and encourage supervisors to write commendations for officers who show superior skills and tactics.

On Tuesday afternoon, for example, Brady attended a roll call, where she read several commendations.

Brady’s promotion was one of six citywide, including Don Floyd, who oversees patrol in North Hollywood, and Stanley Ludwig, who oversees patrol in Foothill.

Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy, who commands the Valley Bureau, said of the group: “They’re all talented and I have every confidence in them.”

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Profile:

Capt. Candace L. Brady

Career highlights: LAPD’s first woman vice detective and first woman patrol captain. Spent a year in the Detective Headquarters Division. Taught law, tactics and reporting at the Police Academy. Worked as an undercover narcotics officer. Worked the foot beat in skid row. Spent four years in Internal Affairs, including the past year in the San Fernando Valley office.

Education: Graduated from Cleveland High School in Reseda; earned an AA degree from Pierce College and a bachelor’s degree in public affairs from Pepperdine University. Received a law degree from Western State University in Fullerton.

Age: 44

Family: Married to Brian Brady, chief of Novato Police Department. Her grandmother was a civilian employee in the Juvenile Division of the LAPD during the 1950s.