CAPTAIN RICK AGUILAR

SERVING SINCE 1998

Personally and professionally, Captain Rick Aguilar, of the San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division, doesn’t stay in one place for very long.

But he hopes that’s about to change.

The Northern Division oversees La Jolla, Bay Ho, Clairemont Mesa, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, University City and more.

Aguilar, who has been with the SDPD since 1997, started his career in the Northern Division. 

“I worked on the beach team during the summer and the night beach team,” he said. “It’s a huge honor to come back as captain. I know I have some big shoes to fill because Chief Scott Wahl served here.”

Aguilar spent his first two years on the force at Northern before transferring to the Central Division, working patrol and with the crime suppression team. He also was a SWAT sniper, worked with the investigations team and helped with the narcotics and gang units.

After leaving Central, Aguilar moved to the Northeastern Division and worked with his sister and brother-in-law, both of whom are officers in the department.

Soon after, Aguilar was promoted to investigations and became a detective. After a year, he transferred to the narcotics headquarters and worked undercover for several years.

“I had a blast working with the team there,” he said. “There were a lot of senior detectives, so I gained a lot of knowledge from working with them.”

He went on to be a patrol sergeant for the Western Division and worked with vice operations and a narcotics task force before returning to Northern for two years. Then he went back to the SWAT team until his recent appointment as acting captain of the Northern Division.

As the child of a military family, moving around is nothing new for Aguilar.

He was born in Minnesota but “grew up in a lot of places,” including Camp Pendleton, South Carolina and Hawaii.

“My dad was in the Marine Corps and retired as the depot sergeant major here in San Diego,” said Aguilar, whose parents met while his father was stationed in Japan.

Aguilar met his wife, Danielle, while he was in the police academy. The two have been married for 23 years and have three daughters.

Aguilar said he likes to spend his little off-duty time with his family. “I also try to golf, but it’s mostly just putting divots in the ground,” he said with a laugh.

Aguilar said he plans to work with the Captain’s Advisory Board and the Northern Division’s lieutenants and community relations officers to “relearn what is going on and what is driving our activity” and to be “as proactive as possible” as issues arise.

“I really want to listen to the board, my lieutenants and the community and see what their concerns are,” Aguilar said. “I want to see what they have to say and bring that information back to come up with a strategy. We’ll do the best we can as far as getting officers back out there as much as possible.”