New Top Cop Is Unlike Any D.C. Has Seen

Cathy Lanier is Washington's new top cop. She's a 39-year old single mother — and a white woman in a predominately black city, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.

"Nobody cares whether I'm female, whether I'm white, whether I'm Catholic. That doesn't matter to people. They just want somebody who's honest with them and does what needs to be done," Lanier says.

The incoming chief, who now lives with and takes care of her mother, started as a D.C. police rookie 16 years ago. She has no use for a desk.

Lanier says she'll lead her 3,800 officers out in the field, protecting a city that's a prime terrorist target since it's home to the President and Congress.

"I don't want to be the one that tells everybody what to do. I want to be the one that gets everyone in the room together to figure out what's the best thing to do," she explains.

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Cmdr. Lanier talks about her leadership style.

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"I think it's all about role models, and whether they look up to me or somebody else, at least they have an opportunity, to see now — especially for young girls — to see now a woman who's in a position, an important position of authority," Lanier says.

As a young girl herself, Lanier dropped out of high school and had a baby at 15. She now has two master's degrees and is fully in charge.

"I'm not going to sing for my supper and try to prove myself to everybody. They'll see what it is I got, and they'll either like it or they'll not," she says, adding that her two brothers would say she's a tough woman.

She'll need to be tough. Washington, once known as the nation's "murder capital," saw a new spike in violence over the summer, forcing officials to declare a "crime emergency." But Lanier says the capital gets a bad rap, and that its overall crime numbers have been dropping over the last few years.

"I think it's a very safe city. My challenge is I need to make sure that everyone who comes here thinks it's safe. The perception has to change," she says.