Roderick Green is a man of many talents. A former Marine who was stationed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm, he’s also versed in music production, acting, rapping, coaching, video production and songwriting. Oh yeah, he’s a pretty good
Roderick Green is a man of many talents.
A former Marine who was stationed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm, he’s also versed in music production, acting, rapping, coaching, video production and songwriting.
Oh yeah, he’s a pretty good police officer, too.
Green, a police lieutenant serving since 2004, was honored at the Hawaii State Law Enforcement Officials Association as Kauai’s Officer of the Year Sept. 18 in Kona.
Before coming to Hawaii, Green served as a police officer in Los Angeles for 11 years.
As part of his duties here, he handles community relations at Kauai Police Department including coordinating station tours and the Citizens Police Academy. A crisis negotiator, Green recently talked down a suicidal man at Walmart in Lihue.
A month later, Green was promoted to lieutenant.
Green sat down with The Garden Island recently to talk about police work, Kauai and Batman.
What inspired you to want to become an officer?
Realizing that I wanted to help people, and interactions with police growing up in Chicago happened to be positive. And just the ability to help people who can’t help themselves. Victims. Victims of whatever. Victims of abuse. Defending people who have a difficult time. Sticking up for people who get bullied. As far as defending people, there’s some bad elements out there. Somebody has to be able to face that type of adversity.
Other than the fact that Batman is a fictional character, what qualities make you different than him?
He has to hide in the shadows to defend people whereas if you’re out in the open, everybody knows who I am and what I do as a police officer. It’s not like I’m some vigilante behind the scenes.
You’re proud of what you do?
Oh, totally. Totally. As a matter of fact, I’m glad you said that.
I’m very proud of what I do. Especially in this era of a lot of anti-law enforcement sentiment. Like I will walk around with a police shirt on because I am proud of my profession and I am proud of the people that I work with. Whereas if I lived in maybe in Los Angeles or back in Chicago, I could still be proud but because of the danger element, I wouldn’t want people to know that I am police officer because you got to kind of be wary.
It’s safer to be a police officer on Kauai than it is to be a police officer in those places?
I wouldn’t say that because that would kind of give off that you let your guard down. Which I never do. You have to have your wits about you at all times. If you look at what just happened at Oregon at the community college, so anything can happen anywhere. You have to be prepared. The difference between here and a major municipality, say, is gangs. That’s a problem we don’t have. Everyone knows each other for the most part. We still have that aloha spirit. If you have some kids that are acting out that want to think about doing something like that, Aunty and Uncle are going to put you in your place before it even gets to that point. So that’s something that I love about living here.
So you carry that law enforcement pride pretty high. Has that always been the case? Have you always been proud of being part of your profession?
No. I wasn’t proud at a certain point in Los Angeles when I worked there when the Rodney King verdict came out. That particular day, I was in the academy and a senior student stuck his head into the class and I remember this vividly because we were taking a class on use of force that day, speaking of the irony of something. So he sticks his head and says, “Not guilty,” and the majority of the class went, “Rahhhhh!” And I was just like, “Wow.”
So regardless of what people thought of Rodney King as a person, I felt like, why are people celebrating this? It was just obviously excessive force that was used. I wasn’t proud of the profession that I had chosen. I actually thought about not being a police officer at that point. I had to dig deep and think, “Is this something that I want to do?” And I thought, “The best way to change something is not be on the outside and critique it. It’s to try and change it from the inside.” So I always try to treat people the way I want my family to be treated. I always treat my family with respect. If we got to agree to disagree and I got to take you to jail, then so be it. But I’m going to at least treat you with respect.
You said you once had to talk down a guy at a Walmart. Tell me about that.
There was a report of a gentleman who was suicidal at Walmart. When I arrived, I saw that he was extremely frustrated and saw he felt that he had limited options. He was willing to have a conversation with me, and we were able to come to a peaceful resolution.
Tell me about your most stressful day on the job on Kauai or wherever.
My most stressful day on the job was responding to a store robbery alone in Los Angeles. There was a report of three masked gunmen with automatic weapons. The call itself didn’t make it the most stressful, but the totality of events that preceded it added to the level of stress that day.
What is something that people don’t understand about being a cop that you wish they did?
That we have to make split-second decisions with limited information.
Share your craziest arrest story.
I once arrested WWE female wrestler Chyna for domestic abuse against her then-wrestler boyfriend Xpac.
What would the perfect day on Kauai be like?
The perfect day on Kauai is being alive to experience the different nuances the island has to offer.
Why did you come to Kauai?
Several factors led me to Kauai. But if I were to sum it up, I would say destiny. I had a mission. I felt like being here on Kauai I would have more of a direct impact. When you’re in a big place, you’re just a statistic.
What’s the hardest thing?
Once again this varies for each officer. For me personally, having my profession misunderstood. So for instance, people may drive and say why it take X amount of officers. People don’t understand the rationale. The level of force that needs to be used to subdue someone. The amount of information we need from a caller when they report something. We need to be able to gauge that. People base their whole perception on what they see in movies and TV shows.
What is something that the media gets wrong about police?
Certain aspects in the media want to create news. Some things aren’t as important. Facts are as important. Usually things aren’t as moderate. Depends on the media. Some outlets of the media want to paint the police as the bad guys.
What’s the worst part about being a cop?
It varies for different officers. For some, it’s having to respond to calls of child or elder abuse. For some, it’s being misunderstood and having some segments of the public not trust the profession. For others, it’s responding to calls involving death and having to keep your poise while consoling the family members of the victim. For me personally, there is no worst part. I love my profession.
Why not become a detective?
No particular reason. I felt the need to be in community relations the last three years because of the impact I felt that I would be able to have in the community.
What do you do to relax on the island?
Go to the beach; sit in my yard at night and look at the stars.
What are some of your other interests?
Tennis, music production, songwriting, coaching, golf, reading, kali, charity work, video production, commentary on high school football games, poetry.
What about Kauai do you love?
I love the people! The aloha spirit is alive and well.
