Glendale News Press, CA
March 20 2014
Intersections: A ride that changed a life
March 19, 2014|By Liana Aghajanian
Lt. Lola Abrahamian never intended to become a police officer. She was
already enjoying a fruitful and rewarding career she had had since
graduating from college, but an interest in criminal law and a chance
meeting with the Glendale Police Department led to a ride-along that
completely changed the course of her life.
“I went out on the ride-along and I thought this is what I want to do.
It was just fun and exciting and I thought, well, this is a lot more
fun than becoming a lawyer,” she said with the kind of enchanting,
contagious laugh that makes you want to laugh, too. “The problem was
that nobody really thought I was serious, because of what I was doing
and what I wanted to do.”
What she was doing was a world away from law enforcement. For 14
years, Abrahamian worked in the field of reproductive biology. With
combined degrees in microbiology and chemistry, she was a lead
embryologist in several Southern California in vitro fertilization
facilities, including one of the country’s largest sperm banks.
The leap from giving someone the chance to become parents to
patrolling the streets was a big one. And though she loved her career,
she was leaning toward a change, one that she was very serious about
following through with.
“I tell people, imagine what a wonderful and intriguing thing it is to
be able to look at a single sperm and a single egg and then look at a
fertilized egg and embryo and then nine months later, see a live
baby,” she said. “To this day, I miss it. I didn’t leave because I
didn’t like the career, I just had gone as far as I could go.”
After three years as a reserve, Abrahamian transitioned to a patrol
officer, but her roles and opportunities within the department have
been plentiful and diverse. She was once a crisis negotiator for the
city’s SWAT team, worked as a detective in financial crime and assault
units and because of her science background, oversaw the fairly new
Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory.
Promoted to lieutenant in 2010, she became North Area Commander last
summer. This coming April will be her 14-year anniversary with the
Glendale Police Department.
She is in all senses of the word a self-confessed anomaly. With two
careers blossoming at different stages in her life, her entrance into
law enforcement strays away from the normal career trajectory of a
police officer.