HOLYOKE — Never settle when you’re rejected for a job — try again, that same job could get you called a “heroine” by the state.
That’s exactly what happened to Holyoke Community College’s new police chief, Jacqueline Robles, Holyoke’s own Wonder Woman.
When she first applied for a security job 22 years ago, in 2002, she was initially rejected in favor of another candidate. But she knew the job she wanted, reapplied, and aced her interview.
“I started at the bottom and now I’m chief,” she said sitting in her office this week — an office she has had since her inauguration to the position in May.
Her selection sparked a wave of celebration for the woman who is not only HCC’s first Latina chief, but the entire state’s. She succeeds Scott Livingstone, retired police chief from Amherst, who had been serving as interim police chief at HCC since October 2024.
She was honored by the state at the end of last month by being named one of 2025’s Commonwealth Heroines. Following that acknowledgment, she was also named by the Springfield City Council, the city she now lives in, to be the 2025 Civil Service Ambassador for the city’s Puerto Rican Parade.
Her inauguration into her new role, which took place on May 5, was also historic as it was the first oath of office ceremony in the school’s history.
The youngest of 12 kids, Robles was born in Puerto Rico, raised in Springfield, and graduated from Holyoke High School.
“When I got out of high school, like most kids I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. But she remembers two of her brothers who were cops and how they’d come home with stories — stories of activity, adventure and arrests. In fact, she is one of five police officers in her family.
So when her sister became an officer, “I was like, ‘you know what, I could do that — I am fit and athletic and have the mindset.’”
She had been in general studies at Springfield Technical Community College and promptly switched to criminal justice.
Experience before working for HCC included other local jobs, like being a campus security officer with Smith College.
When she first moved to Springfield at the age of 2, her father would work doing “odd jobs” and her mother was a homemaker. She said the state supported her family with Medicaid and Mass Health throughout her childhood.
“But we didn’t know we were poor. My family was very grateful. My mom would always say to thank God for all we had.”
To this day, her close-knit family remains one of her most cherished assets in life. She is the mother of four, and 30 family members joined her at the State House when she was recognized at the end of last month.
In her early teen years, from 11-15, she was back in Puerto Rico, and described the country with a drawn-out “beautiful.”
She rehashed memories of “traveling with my parents to my grandparents’ home because they lived out in the boondocks — what they call Campo in Spanish.”
“I have very fond memories of running after chickens and the fields of pineapple that went on for miles and miles and miles — and the certain smells.”
Her life, she said, is dedicated to empowering others, especially Latina women.
Empowerment for her has a face and a name, and that is Wonder Woman — who is “strong and compassionate,” she said.
Behind her are two Wonder Woman posters, and a drawing on the wall that someone made her. There is a Wonder Woman POP collectible figure. And she rolled up her sleeve — and there was Wonder Woman.
“Everyone knows I’m a fanatic,” she said. She asserted that there isn’t a single article of memorabilia she doesn’t own — “Books, T-shirts, crocs — you name it, I have it.”
Her philosophy about the importance of community-based policing was inspired by an interaction with a young thief a decade ago.
This person had stolen a credit card, and Robles explained it happened in the “gung ho” phase of her career as a young officer, when it was all about, “I got this, I’m going to catch the bad guy.”
But then she had an experience that will stick with her as long as she lives, when for the first time she saw a family member, rather than just another thief, in someone she was processing.
They had a conversation in which he explained, “I am not a bad person, I’ve just made bad decisions.”
The conversation closed with a thank you from the thief — “Thank you for listening,” he said to Robles.
The next day, processing his paperwork, Robles was informed that the young person died overnight of an overdose. It dawned on her, “that he was not just a name, not just a case — and deserved to be treated like a human being.”
From that moment on, her career has been dedicated to “making teachable moments,” prioritizing more community based policing that involves interaction with students on campus and making a positive presence in the brutalist concrete hallways of Holyoke Community College.
“Of course we need to do our jobs and enforce the law, but whenever I can, there are moments to make more teachable,” said Robles.
And she was deemed the perfect person for the job of chief after some realignment within the HCC policing standards.
As chief, Robles holds the title of executive director of community safety, which coincides with the department’s new focus on community policing. Previously part of the college’s division of administration and finance, HCC Campus Police now falls under the auspices of the newly created division of people, culture and equity.
While she said her interaction with the thief was the most heart-wrenching experience of her career, her staff remains a highlight.
“I’m very proud of all the relationships here,” she said. “You see everyone feeling good.”
Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.
