She was the first woman to lead a municipal police force in Bergen County. Now the pioneering Bergenfield police chief is heading out west, to take over a California department.

Chief Cathy Madalone, who moved up the ranks in Bergenfield, spending 25 years on the force, will leave at the end of May to take the chief's post in Pacific Grove, California.

She will oversee a department of 34 employees, including 23 officers, in the central California coastal city of 15,000. Her first day of work is June 10.

Madalone said she decided to apply for the job after meeting the police chief for San Luis Obispo, California, at a conference last October for New Jersey police chiefs. That chief later told Madalone about the Pacific Grove opening.

"She thought it would be awesome for me, and awesome for them, and she thought we would both fit nicely, and so I sent my résumé, and the rest is history," Madalone said.

Her final day working in Bergenfield is May 30, while her retirement date is at the end of July, said Business Administrator Corey Gallo.

She will be going to a place 100 miles south of San Francisco where the famed novelist John Steinbeck spent time honing his craft and was inspired to write his classic novel "Cannery Row." It is also where the Tom Hanks vehicle "Turner and Hooch" and the HBO series "Big Little Lies" were filmed.

"It's paradise. Beautiful country," Madalone said Tuesday. "I'm looking forward to it. It's a great police department; it's a great community."

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Madalone, a Staten Island native who grew up in central New Jersey, decided to become a police officer while employed at Riewerts Funeral Home in Bergenfield, after seeing a co-worker filling out an application to work for the Bergenfield department. In August 1994, she became the department's first female officer.

During her career, she worked in the patrol bureau — including an assignment at Roy W. Brown Middle School as a school resource officer — and in the traffic and records bureaus. She reached the top spot in September 2015.

She said she will miss the people of Bergenfield and her colleagues. "My community, they're my family. Watching these kids grow up," Madalone said. "And of course, the men and women here, they're my family, too."

She is proud of Bergenfield's strong program of community policing. "Without the community's help, we can't do our jobs properly," Madalone said. "When crisis happens, we already have those relationships in place."

Madalone led a department for a borough of 26,700 people that had a total of 69 reported crimes in 2018, according to the Uniform Crime Statistics report compiled by the New Jersey State Police. A fatal stabbing death this week was the borough's first homicide since 2017. Pacific Grove is also a low-crime community: The FBI's Uniform Crime Report shows 16 violent crimes and 324 property crimes in 2017.

While ascending from sergeant in 2003 to lieutenant in 2008, and then captain in 2012, Madalone was a mentor to colleagues like Capt. Mustafa Rabboh, a 16-year veteran of the force who transferred from the Paterson Police Department.

"Basically, she took me under her wing when she became chief and has been teaching everything she knows," Rabboh said. "But I will be honest with you: She has a world of knowledge that is lot to consume."

Madalone was hired in Pacific Grove in April after a search that brought in 66 candidates, said Ben Harvey, Pacific Grove's city manager. Harvey said she will be the city's first permanent police chief since Amy Christey retired from the post in December.

Harvey said Madalone, who will receive a salary ranging from $144,000 to $193,000, possessed two qualities that won her the Pacific Grove position: "Her fit with the Police Department and the municipal organization, and her exemplary qualifications."

She will be leaving behind a job where she received a salary of $195,000, according to public records. Gallo said Madalone will receive terminal leave pay of about $88,000 upon her retirement.

Gallo said the chief informed him last week that she had been offered the Pacific Grove post and was going to accept. He said he appreciated working with her on various issues.

"She's been a good boss, and it's been a pleasure to work with her as chief," Gallo said.

He said there would be discussion in closed session after the Borough Council meeting Tuesday night with Bergenfield Mayor Norman Schmelz and coundil members to decide who will be the next chief, with the new person to come from within the department.

Schmelz said Madalone's departure is still a bit of a shock, but he is proud that his town had the first female municipal police chief in Bergen County.

"She is always approachable; she is straightforward. If I asked her a question, she was not wishy-washy," Schmelz said. "Unfortunately, we are going to lose her, but the West Coast is going to gain a really strong leader in Cathy."

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com