The Suffolk Police Department gained a fourth-generation police officer, Carlos Gonzalez Jr., when he took his oath on Feb. 13.

Gonzalez got his start with law enforcement as a police dispatcher. Dispatching was introduced to him by his mother, who has been a dispatcher for a large part of her life. Gonzalez dispatched for six years before he made the decision to join the police academy.

“I think listening to what was going on, it kind of sparked an interest. Being able to experience it is something quite unique and different,” Gonzalez said.

In October, Gonzalez joined the police academy and graduated in February. Now he is spending the next few months in a post-academy program with the Suffolk Police Department.

Gonzalez’s family has been proud of his decision to carry on the family tradition. His father, Carlos Gonzalez Sr., his grandfather, James Moodie, and his great-grandfather, Kaye Sloane, were all part of the Suffolk Police Department, dating back to before Nansemond and Suffolk merged.

“To be honest, I was a little apprehensive at first, but I could tell that he was really serious and kind of dead set on it,” Gonzalez Sr. said. “At that point I was all happy to do anything I could to help him out.”

“I’m incredibly proud of him for deciding to do this,” said Moodie.

Gonzalez has been exposed to the Suffolk Police Department since his childhood, and it helped shaped his future.

“He was very interested. He had the little uniform for Halloween with clip-on badge and plastic handcuffs,” Gonzalez Sr. said. I never thought, at that time, it was going to grab him the way it did.”

Gonzalez’s wife was excited for him to make the leap for the police academy, and, living so close, he has the ability to be home every night with his wife.

His wife recently gave birth to a baby boy, and Gonzalez would be happy to see him grow up and fall in love with being a police officer as well, “as long as that’s what he wants.”

All of his family members who have been in the Suffolk Police Department have retired from it. This is Gonzalez’s hope for his family as well.

“My thing is nobody pushed him in that direction,” Gonzelez Sr. said. “That was a decision he had to make. As long as he is doing well, we are here to support him 100 percent. Should something happen and he change his mind, it’s OK.”