Jose Rodriguez

Introduction

Jose Rodriguez is a Chicago police officer whose February 2024 drunk rampage at his girlfriend’s home — kicking down her front door, screaming anti-Black and homophobic slurs caught on her doorbell camera, and tearing a door off her microwave — led then-Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to overrule the city’s oversight agency and decide he should be fired outright. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability had recommended a suspension of less than 90 days; Snelling rejected that as unsuitable “due to the seriousness of the misconduct.” The records underpinning the case became public in October 2026 through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Background Information

Rodriguez had been a Chicago police officer for just 18 months when the incident occurred on February 7, 2024. His girlfriend at the time — whom he had dated for twelve years — is herself a Chicago police officer, though COPA’s report does not name her under its rules. The fracas began after a birthday celebration for her, during which Rodriguez consumed several alcoholic drinks. He was stripped of his badge and gun and assigned to administrative duties in October 2024, and he could not be reached for comment by WTTW News.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

After the birthday celebration, Rodriguez returned to the home his girlfriend owned and went into the basement, she told investigators. An hour later he vomited but remained inebriated. When he wanted to leave, she hid his car keys and wallet because she did not want him driving drunk; he refused to wait for a ride or his brother, and when he found he could not operate his car, he became enraged. Told through the intercom to leave, he pounded and kicked the front door, then moved to the back door, kicking it while using anti-Black and homophobic slurs that a doorbell camera recorded. He broke the door down, entered the home, went to a bedroom and fell asleep.

When his brother arrived and tried to help him leave, Rodriguez became enraged again: he knocked glass objects off a dresser, flipped over a coffee table and tore the door off his girlfriend’s microwave, records show. The woman called 911 asking for help removing him, prompting Rodriguez to threaten her: “If I’m going down, you’re going down with me.” He left with his brother when two officers arrived — officers who were themselves reprimanded for turning off their body-worn cameras during the incident, in violation of department policy.

Interviewed by COPA a year later, Rodriguez denied being drunk, claiming he suffered a panic attack that cost him his memory of the incident, and said he “attempted to lie down on a wooden dresser in the guest bedroom to try to slow his breathing.” Investigators found his “rationale for his behavior was both insufficient and implausible,” concluding his recollection was “refuted by the evidence” — the video clearly showed intoxication — and that his actions showed “extremely poor judgement, a lack of self-control, significant unprofessionalism” and brought discredit on the department. COPA recommended a suspension of less than 90 days; Snelling’s October 30, 2025 letter overruled it: “The appropriate penalty should be separation.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case surfaced publicly only when WTTW News obtained the records through a FOIA request and published them on October 14, 2026, drawing attention both to the conduct itself and to the discipline gap it exposed: oversight investigators sought weeks of suspension, the superintendent demanded termination. The reporting also noted the department’s silence — a CPD spokesperson did not respond to a question about Rodriguez’s current assignment. Within the broader Chicago accountability debate, the case sits alongside the discovery that the two responding officers disabled their cameras, a detail COPA’s report documented.

Current Status

Rodriguez remains a city employee in administrative duty status, stripped of his badge and gun since October 2024, but he cannot be fired any time soon: a long-running dispute over whether officers accused of serious misconduct may demand an arbitrator — rather than the Chicago Police Board — decide their fate, and whether such proceedings must be public, has stalled the case. The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments on that question in the month before the records’ release, and a decision could come before the end of the year. No criminal charges arising from the incident appear in the fetched record.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Eighteen months into his policing career, Rodriguez produced a disciplinary record that his own superintendent judged severe enough to end it — a recommendation COPA’s investigators did not even seek, having concluded a sub-90-day suspension would do. His account of a medical episode was rejected on video evidence, and his threat that his girlfriend would “go down” with him came from a fellow officer whose home he destroyed. Until the arbitrator question resolves, he works out the clock in administrative limbo; if the state’s high court preserves the board’s jurisdiction, Snelling’s separation recommendation awaits a hearing that could formally end his employment.

Sources

• WTTW News, “Fire CPD Officer Who Kicked Down Girlfriend’s Door, Used Racial Slurs While Drunk: Top Cop,” October 2026 — source