Kay Howard - Professional Life

Professional Life

Having been a homicide detective since April 1991, Kay was generally portrayed as a tough female detective. That being said she was not entirely hardened by her job and at times expressed disbelief that seemingly good people were murderers. As a detective she was thorough, realistic, and generally had among the highest clearance rates in the squad. Her high rate of success was important to her as she felt that as the only woman she needed to prove herself. Megan Russert would later chide her for this tendency. Despite her generally rational approach she held strongly to magical thinking as she felt some things "transcended" logic. This included varied superstitions, which she displayed at work, and the idea that the ghost of a victim aided her in solving a case.

During Season 3, she and fellow detectives Stanley Bolander and Beau Felton were shot while trying to serve an arrest warrant on a suspect. Howard was struck in the heart, but eventually made a full recovery and returned to work. Her family came in from the coast to visit her in the hospital; her father was especially concerned over how little information the doctors were willing to share.

In the Season 4 premiere, Howard passed a promotion exam and was elevated to Sergeant. Most of her fellow detectives had encouraged her to go up for the position, but on actually assuming the role she became alienated from them. This came in part because she seemed at first to "micromanage" them and in part simply because her position put her in a different relationship to them. Her friendship with Det. Meldrick Lewis, who had been strongly supportive of her desire to seek the promotion, grew especially stormy afterward and affected their working relationship.