Dancing For Doughnuts: GA Tech Cop's Dance-Off Caught On Video

ATLANTA — Robert Rodriguez has never taken himself seriously enough to keep him from being himself.

The 30-year-old officer with the Georgia Tech Police Department has always fancied himself a bit of a dancer, and so when he came across a fellow dance enthusiast Friday, Rodriguez wasn’t afraid to bust out a few moves. Little did he know that his impromptu dance-off with a perfect stranger was being caught on video.

The video was posted on the department’s social media channels and has been liked, shared and even earned Rodriguez, a Brooklyn native, his fair share of virtual doughnuts. Rodriguez, who has been with the Georgia Tech Police Department for about three years, is taking all of the attention in stride — just like any dancer worth his salt would.

“Sometimes, I just randomly do dance moves,” Rodriguez told Patch in a telephone interview Monday. “It’s just something I do on my own time usually.”

He added: “I’m always going to be myself. If I would have known it was being recorded, maybe I would have been a little hesitant to do it. But as far as being spontaneous and having fun, that’s what I pride myself on.”

Friday’s dance party came at the end of a situational training session that Rodriguez was just finishing up with fellow officers. He said he came across someone who happened to be dancing across the street on a nearby sidewalk, so Rodriguez offered up his own moves before leaving to put his training equipment away.

When he returned five minutes later, he found the stranger still there dancing. So, still unaware that the entire episode was being recorded, Rodriguez engaged his fellow competitor for a second time.

Rodriguez works as a community outreach officer with the Georgia Tech department, so part of his job is to engage with students and campus organizations, Rodriguez said. But when he got to throw his love of dancing into his job and then have it captured on video, that just added to the enjoyment that came out of the situation.

Even with the two interactions, Rodriguez said he never spoke with his dance-off competitor and only waved to him as he was leaving the scene. Three days later, Rodriguez still only knows the person as a random dancing stranger. The fact everything was caught on video was just icing on the .... doughnut.

“It was surprising (it was recorded), but it was cool because oftentimes, a lot of officers don’t get any good publicity,” Rodriguez said. “For people to see we’re human and that we like to have fun just like anybody else, it’s just really nice to see that.”

Rodriguez was also appreciative of the social media response that came to the video on the department’s Facebook page. The post asked for people who liked the video to respond with doughnuts or other signs of appreciation. Although police officers aren’t always thrilled with the notion that associates them with the consumption of sweet pastries, Rodriguez didn’t mind at all.

“I was hoping there would be doughnuts,” he told Patch of the social media response. “I’d like to think I still have a couple moves left in me. It just makes me happy to see that people were engaging (with the post) and that I could bring a smile to people’s faces.”