The only place to cool off for those who live between Manton Avenue and Atwells Avenue, in Providence, is the Joslin Recreation Center pool, a blue oasis in the middle of concrete and scrubby playing fields. And the person helping to keep the mood cool at the pool is Providence police Officer Cyndi Rodriquez, also known as C-Rod (the New York native is a Yankee fan and a weekend season ticket holder) to colleagues, family and friends.

Officer Rodriquez patrols the halls of Central High School as the resource officer during the school year. But when school is out and summer arrives, she gets to change her uniform into shorts and polo shirt as she works poolside. Even so, she carries the tools of her trade: a handgun, radio, handcuffs. In the morning she drives around the streets in a squad car, and her afternoon job is keeping the peace at the Joslin pool.

This is her fifth summer at Joslin, one of the six pools, water parks and recreation centers in the city staffed by Providence police who serve during the school year as resource officers. “People like to see a police presence at the parks,” says Capt. Keith Tucker of the department’s Youth Services Bureau. “It gives them a feeling of security.” Tucker says there are 10 school resource officers at the middle and high schools, and he hopes to raise that number to 12 by the time school starts again in September.

Rodriquez says she loves the job. It gives her a chance to work with children year-round. “I think I am good working with the kids, helping them out,” she says. “You’ve got to like kids” to do the job well.

She says young people in their 20s occasionally come up to her and remind her they knew her when she was their DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer or their resource officer at Perry Middle School, where she worked for a stint before being transferred to Central. If she decided to try something else within the department, she says she might want to be a detective in the juvenile squad.

In 2004 while patrolling at Joslin, she helped save the life of a 2-year-old, Angel Benitez. She says she urged the young lifeguards, who jumped in to rescue the toddler who had slipped under the water, to keep their cool. “The mother in me kicked in, and I said, ‘You have to do this’ ” as the lifeguard gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while she pushed on the toddler’s chest.

It’s clear that she is highly regarded among every age group of children. After all, this year the senior class at Central dedicated their yearbook to “Officer Cyndi: Her presence has really made the school feel alive. She’s always there when you need someone to talk to. … She has really changed our lives. …Thank you so much.”