SOUTH BAY / COVER STORY : THE NEW BLUE LINE : With a goal of almost tripling the number of female officers, the LAPD is actively recruiting and training women with varied backgrounds.

For years, Julie McInnis wanted to be a cop. After raising two sons, she decided last fall that the time was right. Now McInnis leads other recruits on long, grueling runs preparing for June entrance into the Los Angeles Police Academy in Westchester.

School bus driver Karen Smith, meanwhile, sought a dramatic career change after she and her husband of 10 years divorced. Today, she’s a Los Angeles Police Department cadet with 3 1/2 months of academy classes remaining, eager to begin patrolling the streets.

McInnis and Smith are among a growing number of women turning in their workaday lives for a badge, beneficiaries of an LAPD drive to recruit and train more female officers. Gone are the days when the LAPD would simply recruit brawny men from military bases or security firms. Now the department, under pressure from City Hall, is seeking women of all backgrounds--from hairdressers to homemakers to insurance claims adjusters.

“You can be 5 feet tall and 90 pounds, or 6 feet 3 inches and 200 pounds--either way you can still do the job,” said Sgt. Lita Abella, vice president of the Los Angeles Women Police Officers’ Assn.

Currently, female officers account for 16% of the almost 8,000-officer department, up from only 2% in 1981. Hoping to bring the number of female officers to 43% of the force, the LAPD offers female recruits special training programs before they start at the police academy, including physical conditioning and hands-on police work.

With just over 1,300 women in the LAPD’s ranks, Abella is pleased with the numbers. “It’s terrific that we have that many,” Abella said. “It is a very, very good sign for not only the department but for the community.”

Added Lt. Stan Ludwig, who commands the Westchester Academy: “Some people say there is no place for women in police work and that’s garbage. We’ve seen that it isn’t true.”

But recruitment has not been without its growing pains. Some people charge that testing standards have been lowered to admit women, and others complain that the old-fashioned, even Neanderthal attitude of some officers has made it difficult for women to adapt to the department.

“We absolutely applaud the efforts to increase the women in the LAPD,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. “But it’s not enough to recruit the women. Steps need to be taken so that women are treated with respect once they’re in the department.”

Ripston added: “Critical mass is very important. As more and more women come into the department, the attitudes [of some men] have to change.”

To that end, the department has launched a promotional campaign. The imposing male police officer has disappeared from many billboards and brochures, replaced by pictures of female officers. The department’s recruiters are hosting a series of women’s career seminars and visiting women’s health clubs.

Recruiters also have expanded their search outside of Los Angeles County, and soon will begin looking out-of-state. They have promoted their hiring in various newspapers and magazines, including Lesbian News, in which an ad last year noted that a number of new women--”Some straight. Some lesbian”--will join the LAPD. “We want both,” the ad said.

Police are even trying to reach women at home--adding leaflets to Department of Water and Power bills.

The recruitment follows Mayor Richard Riordan’s 1993 pledge to add about 3,000 new officers to the force over a five-year period.

The February opening of the 180,000-square-foot police academy in Westchester accelerated the police training programs. Officials are trying to start a 90-member class of recruits--men and women--each month.

But before any recruit sets foot in the academy, they face a battery of written, physical, medical and psychological tests. Considered “candidates” only after they pass the written exam, recruits spend a minimum of 21 weeks on testing, background checks and other pre-admission hurdles.

To boost the number of successful female candidates, the department offers special pre-academy classes to help women succeed--first in the academy and then in their careers.

One offering is a physical abilities class available to all candidates who have passed the written test. The rigorous workout class, initially offered for women, has grown so popular that men also are attending in growing numbers.

The physical agility requirements include scaling an infamous 6-foot wall in an obstacle course. The hurdle has traditionally been one of the toughest parts of the exercise for women.

In general, more women than men have a problem with the wall because they have less upper-body strength, recruit trainers said. But with enough practice, they add, women can scale the wall as surely as they meet the LAPD’s other physical conditioning requirements.

“It’s technique, that’s all it is,” said candidate McInnis. “You just have to learn to hook your foot over.”

McInnis and other candidates said they would oppose attempts to drop the wall from the testing requirements--as some critics of the department’s hiring practices have suggested--to make it easier for women to qualify.

“What would that say about us?” McInnis said. “That we were the group of women who couldn’t do it. That would be a mistake.”

In addition to the physical agilities training, the department offers women a five-week, paid training course called the Crime Prevention Assistant (CPA) program that allows recruits to get a feel for policing before they start at the academy.

In the program, women get to work at police stations, training physically and mentally for a police career.

“We’ve found if women enter CPA, [they are] more than doubling their chance of success at the academy,” Ludwig said. The program has been so successful, he said, that he would like to see all recruits participate: “We should have the CPA for men too, but it’s a matter of priorities and resources.”

One controversial aspect of the department’s hiring is how candidates are ranked for entry into the academy.

A 1981 court mandate requires that women and minorities must each comprise 25% of any new group of cadets at the academy. And that mandate means that some of the women and minorities accepted at the academy may have lower test scores than white males who are denied entrance, said Sgt. Steven Flores of the recruiting division.

The mandate has resulted in complaints from some white men about the department’s hiring practices, Flores said. “But I think most people are aware that we have been ordered by the courts to do it that way,” he said.

To date, no cases of reverse discrimination have been filed over the practices, according to the city attorney’s office.

During their seven months of training, cadets receive 1,064 hours of instruction--four months at the Westchester academy and three months at the academy at Elysian Park.

The training program is one of the nation’s most rigorous for police departments, Ludwig said, noting that it far exceeds the state minimum requirement of 760 hours.

Cadets agree that the pace can be grueling.

Classes usually start between 5 and 6 a.m., and a typical day can mean spending two hours in a law class, then an hour or so in a Spanish language course. From there, cadets go on to search-and-seizure techniques, and then physical training. Cadets also receive training in tactics, weapons, report writing and driving techniques.

Often, classwork or study groups keep them at the academy 10 to 12 hours every day. And then they return home to study for tests. “It doesn’t leave much time for sleep,” said cadet Monica Bess, who has two toddlers.

Bess and three other female cadets interviewed recently said the training is exhausting yet exciting. After two months at the Westchester academy, they were sure they had made the right choice going into police work.

“Where else can you be so involved in life?” Smith said. “You’re helping making a difference out there.”

Added cadet Amy Schwab: “Sometimes I feel weird because I’m having such a good time [at the academy], and I like it so much.”

But the academy is not for everyone.

“Some people say, ‘I don’t want it. . . . I want to have a baby and stay at home,’ ” said Sgt. Steve Knieriem, assistant officer in charge of the Westchester academy.

And if the cadet is struggling and policing is not what they thought, the decision to leave should be made before getting out on the streets, Knieriem added.

“This is easy here at the academy compared to what’s out there,” he said.

Academy supervisor Ludwig said he is seeing fewer women have a hard time in physical training and self-defense because CPA and other voluntary physical programs are helping them get and stay in better physical shape.

Academically, men and women perform equally, according to LAPD statistics. In fact, there are few areas where they don’t. One is weaponry training.

“About 70% of those cadets who wash out in firearms training are female,” Ludwig said.

He said the academy has increased the hours of firearm practice for some in hopes of rectifying the drop. So far, the training has made a big difference--not one female cadet has failed firearms training since the extra instruction began last August.

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In the academy, the requirements for men and women are the same, officials emphasize. “The department says you must do these things--man or woman--or you’re terminated,” Knieriem said.

Each cadet class loses about 10% to 12% of its members to injuries, testing failures or a decision not to pursue police work, academy officials said.

Women leave at a higher rate than do men. In 1994, 15% of the female cadets in the academy left the department, while 5% of the men departed. But taking into account that three times as many men were in the classes, the actual number of dropouts was about the same, Ludwig added.

Women may bring less physical strength to police work, but they often bring better conflict resolution abilities and a less aggressive style, department officials say.

“I think women can probably talk someone into a [patrol] car, for example, whereas sometimes men set the aggressive pace,” said cadet Monica Bess.

“A lot of people still hold old stereotypes of police officers--that it is a ‘man’s job’ because it’s a physical job,” Flores said. “The reality is, it’s not that much of physical work. The skills needed are much more interactive and problem-solving.”

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Most men and women enter the LAPD for similar reasons: primarily seeking adventure, excitement and challenges, said Robin Greene, a consultant with the LAPD’s Department of Human Relations.

Although policing is a non-traditional career choice for women, it is important to increase the number of women in the department, Greene added.

“The more female officers increase the critical mass,” of the department, Greene said. And that mass is important, she said, because the increased presence of women in police work both demystifies their presence and helps stop discrimination.

A 1993 report prepared by the Women’s Advisory Council to the Los Angeles Police Commission found that hiring and promotion practices led to discrimination and gender bias in the department, and that sexism could hinder the implementation of community-based policing.

Community-based policing is a method of law enforcement that emphasizes contact with the community and crime prevention. According to the report, women officers are especially well-suited for community policing because they are able to communicate better and are less likely to use a gun.

The report also warned that the LAPD continued to value physical strength over negotiating skills and did not adequately investigate complaints of sexual harassment.

Although they have heard of the LAPD’s problems with sex harassment and discrimination, many female cadets said they were not overly worried. “Sexual harassment is always a concern, but women face . . . it at any job,” Smith said.

Sexual discrimination was dismissed almost as casually. There may be a few men who had a problem working with women, female cadets said, but that would not affect how they felt about becoming members of the LAPD.

Knieriem said “Some men won’t be partnered with women. But it’s getting less as more women join the department and rise to the occasion.”

Often the recruits find the department doesn’t match their expectation--or Hollywood’s portrayal--of police work.

“You don’t see on ‘Adam-12’ that you have to spend an hour writing a report, or spending your day off at court,” Knieriem said.

Some women recruits have brothers, fathers or husbands in law enforcement, and they have a clear idea of what policing entails.

“We want those women who know that they can get their nose or teeth broken out, but still come knocking at our door,” Knieriem said. “We want people who know it’s a good job, an honorable job, but realize that bad things can happen.”

Beverly Hills Police Detective Richard Schwab said he was pleased that his 21-year-old daughter, Amy, is in the LAPD academy.

Schwab said he was surprised by his daughter’s decision to become an officer, considering she had majored in interior design at UCLA. But then, in a way, he played some part in her choice.

Several years ago, Schwab said, he brought home a flyer about a Beverly Hills police cadet program for college students, thinking his son would be interested.

“In fact, my daughter was,” Schwab said. “I thought she was a shy little thing--shows what a father knows. But I heard from my co-workers that she is well able to take care of herself.”

Amy Schwab said she plans to follow her father’s lead and go into undercover narcotics investigations, where she figures her youthful looks will be helpful.

“It’s going to be so emotional the day we get our badges,” she said. “I know they are just little pieces of tin, but it’s the tradition that makes it a great career.”