As National Hispanic Heritage Month continues, today we at MCPO are bursting with pride to honor and recognize Detective Jose I. Rodriguez of the Special Victims Bureau – whose other official title as a recently promoted Major with the U.S. Air Force is Commander of the 177th Maintenance Operations Flight, 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey National Guard, a role making him responsible for management of a fleet of F-16 fighter jets stationed at Atlantic City International Airport.
It has been a meteoric rise for a native of the Dominican Republic who says he arrived in America as an ESL high-school student in Florida about two decades ago.
“My junior year (of high school) my mom said, ‘you and your brother are going to go live with your dad … because I want you to have opportunities,’” he recalled. “We were reluctant, and it was a tough time coming here. But I think I made the best of it.”
Rodriguez’s policing career took him from the Atlantic City Police Department to the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, which he left to join MCPO in 2019 – the same year he earned his master’s degree in information technology. His military career has been marked by a steady stream of promotions, deployments, and service in recruitment, personnel, operations, and now, management.
Best of all, he said, might be the role of mentorship.
“When I became an officer, when I was able to make it to this level, people from minority communities started telling me ‘we see you, how you’re making things happen, and we want to let you know we’re paying attention,’” he said. “Now I get calls from other officers stationed all over the place, saying, ‘I have this (recruit) from here or there; I want you to talk to them and tell them about your experience.’ I’ve had so many mentorship opportunities I’ve been given because of how I made it to where I am.”
Rodriguez credited his upbringing in Santo Domingo (capital of the Dominican Republic) with helping him do just that, describing life in the Caribbean nation as simpler than in the U.S. – he and his friends would spend most of their time outdoors, he said, playing sports with makeshift equipment fashioned from whatever worked best.
“We used to lose power and water on a daily basis; that was just, like, normal,” he recalled. “There were a lot of struggles that we found we had to go through in life, and we realized along the way that we have to figure it out. The mentality I took is that I can either sink – or try to figure out how to swim.”
Rodriguez said he remains deeply proud of his Dominican heritage, which he described as vibrant – whether it’s the dynamic music, culture, or cuisine, which he said shares African, Spanish, and Taíno (indigenous peoples of the Caribbean) influences that each add a unique spark.
“We’re friendly, very welcoming, and very proud of our heritage and how we interact with the world,” he said. “And we’re big on tourism – we try our best to showcase as much as we can to people visiting.”
Whether he’s comforting a child crime victim or ensuring that fighter jets are properly maintained, Detective/Major Rodriguez is a living embodiment of the American Dream – and we’re all so deeply appreciative not only of his service, but also how he’s now helping others believe that they can achieve similarly.
Original source can be found here.
