GILROY
– When three Gilroy High School students threatened to shoot a
teacher May 14, one female police officer joined numerous men,
entered the school and scoured the campus for possible
Columbine-style gunmen at large.
GILROY – When three Gilroy High School students threatened to shoot a teacher May 14, one female police officer joined numerous men, entered the school and scoured the campus for possible Columbine-style gunmen at large.
With her shades and shotgun, Santa Clara County Deputy Sheriff Nellie Rodriguez looked tough that day. There was, in fact, no shooter, but one might have thought twice about messing with her.
Handling snipers, terrorist threats and other high-stress scenarios was what Rodriguez wanted to do when she was sworn in as a deputy in October 2000. To that end, the 34-year-old South County resident endured a rigorous battery of tests to apply for the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, equivalent to the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams of other police departments.
The same month that she was helping with the GHS lockdown, she made the team, becoming the first female SERT member ever.
It’s a pioneering achievement even in an agency known for female advancement – one headed by California’s first female sheriff, Laurie Smith; one in which Rose Mitre and Dalia Rodriguez rose to the rank of sergeant two years before their husbands did.
Rodriguez isn’t the first female SWAT member in the county – the San Jose PD picked its first a decade ago and is now on its second – but she’s among very select company. The Gilroy Police Department has never had a female officer on its Special Operations Group – equivalent to a SWAT team – and the Morgan Hill PD’s SWAT is likewise all male.
Rodriguez downplayed the trailblazing aspect of her accomplishment in a recent interview.
“I’m working with a lot of great people who see me as their partner, and they don’t see me as anything else but their partner,” she said. “I just see it as doing my job and getting on a unit where I can do different aspects of my job. … I’m just as excited as the other (new SERT members).”
Still, she admitted that being the first woman in a top-notch squad is “really cool.”
Deputy Terrance Helm, Sheriff Smith’s spokesperson, said Rodriguez’s willpower and talent got her through the demanding SERT selection process.
“She’s a great addition to the SWAT team, and by no means was there any favoritism or anything of that nature,” Helm said. “We’ve had women who went out before for the SWAT team and didn’t make it, but she’s just above the rest.”
Soon, Rodriguez and four others will go to a SWAT academy. Each will be assigned and trained in a specialty weapon, and their team will drill together rigorously. The SERT hasn’t been called out since she was chosen, she said, but when it is, she’ll be ready.
The teamwork critical to SERT operations is what attracted Rodriguez most, she said.
“You rely on your partners to do the task at hand,” she said. “I like that.”
Rodriguez said she likes pushing herself to her limits, but she’s not a thrill-seeker. Rather, she said, “I like to enter a situation and see it through.”
Rodriguez admitted she was nervous about being questioned by the press, but she must have done OK when interviewed by a panel of SERT supervisors. To get to that final phase of the weeding process, she had to be recommended by a supervisor and pass physical agility and firearms tests.
Nevertheless, she declined to describe the SERT as an “elite” unit. Instead, she compared it to the crime scene investigation unit – specialized, but not elite.
“We’re all deputies,” she said.
Rodriguez grew up in Redwood City and was an eligibility worker with county Social Services before she switched to law-enforcement. That job was “very different” from her current one, she said, but the knowledge she gained of resources available to youth, the elderly, families and the unemployed comes in handy on her patrol beat.
After three years of patrolling the Los Gatos hills, Rodriguez was switched to the San Martin substation in January. July 2 was her last day working in South County before being transferred to the unincorporated east side of San Jose.
