Private cop and K-9 partner help NE Philly police

WHEN CHRIS Rodriguez drives his patrol car down streets in Mayfair and Oxford Circle that are known crime hotspots, he is always accompanied by his K-9 partner, Misha, and he always wears his licensed 9mm Glock 17.

When he and Misha, a German Shepherd wearing a black K-9 Unit harness, do foot patrols through the playground and courts of Max Myers Rec Center, he is unarmed.

Either way, Rodriguez, 30, who wears the black uniform of Homeland Intelligence and Protective Services LLC and a black K-9 Unit vest, feels that he and Misha help deter street crimes that plague parts of the 2nd and 15th police districts.

Hired in April by Take Back Your Neighborhood, a Castor Gardens community organization, Rodriguez said he sees himself as a supportive presence for residents and for Philadelphia police.

"Some people think we come out and want to play cops," Rodriguez said. "The important part of the job is interacting with the community."

Capt. John McCloskey, of the 15th District, said he has a good relationship with Rodriguez, and the two have a clear understanding of Rodriguez's role in helping the police.

"He has my cell number," McCloskey said. "I told him, 'Don't take any direct action. If you see a robbery, theft, any crime, call 9-1-1 first and report a crime in progress. Then just give me a call and I can get a police car over there fast.' "

He said Rodriguez can help deter crime "just by being a visible presence out there."

During Rodriguez's recent foot patrol at Max Myers Playground, Misha was a kid magnet.

Rosemarie Gracia, who said she came to the neighborhood from Haiti, saw her grandson Christian, 6, join the kids crowding around Misha as the K-9 stood on its hindlegs to give Rodriguez's cheek multiple licks.

"Look how it kisses him!" Gracia exclaimed, delighted. "These dogs do everything but talk!"

A few minutes later, Rodriguez and Misha posed patiently for many cellphone photos with Joyce Huang and her children - Joanna, 5, and Alvin, 6 - and with Huang's friend Helen Li and her sons Calvin, 9, and Jason, 10.

"We live by the park and we're here every day," Li said as the children petted Misha and Joanna solemnly informed Rodriguez that she and her brother don't have a dog at home "but we have a very big goldfish."

A kid wheeled up on his bike.

"Will that dog do everything you say?" he asked Rodriguez.

"Like what?" Rodriguez said.

"Sit?" the kid asked.

"Platz!" Rodriguez told Misha, using the German command for "Down!" Misha sat.

The kid held out a hand and told Misha, "Give me your paw."

She looked at him, waiting for the German translation.

"She don't do paws," Rodriguez explained. Disappointed, the kid sped away.

In the course of an hour, Rodriguez and Misha had friendly encounters with a diverse group of residents that reflected the multi-racial, multi-ethnic makeup of the neighborhood.

Capt. Thomas McLean, whose 2nd District includes Max Myers Playground, said Rodriguez's presence there is a big help as a deterrent to quality of life problems.

Community residents often want police to be deployed for quality of life issues, McLean said, but "I have to deploy based on violent crime and property crime.

"A security guard can focus on kids hanging out, drinking, smoking, playing loud music, being disorderly," McLean said. "Often his presence alone is enough for the crowd to disperse." This frees up police to focus on crimes against persons and property.

McLean met with Rodriguez personally because "he wears a uniform and carries a gun," so police knowing who he is will prevent mischaracterizing him as "person with a gun or impersonating a police officer."

Rodriguez is a down-to-earth Jersey guy with a lot of South Philly in his bones.

"My strong Italian grandma raised me and my two sisters," Rodriguez said. "She lived at 12th and Tree before she moved to Jersey.

"My wife Ashley is from South Philly. We met on the Wildwood boardwalk. I was 17, living in Wildwood, working at the Cape May Seashore Lines. She had come down to Wildwood with eight girlfriends after her 8th-grade graduation. I got her with a corny punchline."

Rodriguez said he pulled out an old, beat-up map of Wildwood. "I was living there, right? I knew the town. But I took out this old map and I said to her, 'Excuse me. Can you tell me where I'm at?'"

Then Rodriguez pointed to the ocean on the map and said to Ashley, "Do you see this cloudy part on here? I must be in heaven because I see an angel in front of me."

A decade later, Rodriguez grinned at the memory. "She was laughing so hard, I thought I'd have to do CPR," he said. "But it worked."

They were married by the mayor of Wildwood. Three children later - ages 10, 8 and 4 - they'll renew their vows on their 10th wedding anniversary in August down the Shore.

"I thank God every day I stopped and hit her with that corny punchline," Rodriguez said.

He works 66 hours a week, patrolling I-95 expansion sites from Rhawn Street to the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, and six apartment complexes in Morrisville, Bucks County, in addition to his Northeast Philadelphia job.

His boss, Brandon Womack, CEO of the Pittsburgh-based security company, said Rodriguez's genuine way with people is a perfect fit for Mayfair and Oxford Circle because, "What is important in an officer, especially now, is cultural sensitivity training instead of just, 'Hey, I'm going to give you a flashlight and a gun.' "

Womack trains neighborhood residents in Pittsburgh to protect themselves from street crime and to be the community's eyes and ears for city police, and said he hopes to do the same thing in Northeast Philadelphia.

A mountain of a man who looks like he just walked off the Eagles practice field, Womack said he trains women how to fight off would-be rapists and muggers.

"I'm 6-foot-6," the former state constable said. "I grab the women and train them how to get out of it by using the eye gouge or the groin pull or the throat punch or the knee strike to the femoral or the peroneal nerve. Women are strong from the waist down, so I teach a lot of kicks."

Womack has set up classrooms at the security agency's Mayfair office, on Frankford Avenue near Glenview Street, where he plans to train residents once his fledgling neighborhood patrols become established.

Jared Solomon, founder of Take Back Your Neighborhood, said Womack's company is doing the patrols for a rock bottom fee as a community service.

"They volunteered to help us out last August with our Northeast Celebration day," Solomon said, "and they did an incredible job keeping things calm and moving with the over 1,000 people who showed up."

"I told them, 'We'd love to have you in our neighborhood to be the eyes and ears along Castor, Bustleton and Rising Sun, and at Max Myers Rec, and to relate everything back to the police.'"

Womack said Rodriguez's uniformed presence serves as a deterrent in known trouble spots, as does his K-9 partner, Misha.

"When the K-9 growls," Womack said, "most people are thinking, 'I don't want to get bit by the dog,' and they leave."