The NYPD’s highest-ranking Hispanic cop reflected this week on how much more diverse the department has become since his retired-lieutenant father served decades ago.

Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera, 52, sat down with The Post at the Bronx’s 46th Precinct for Hispanic Heritage Month Tuesday, and recalled how people with his background were scarce in the force when he was a boy.

“There’s a photo that I have in my office of my father as a police officer doing some recruiting across the street from the Apollo Theatre — at the time when there weren’t many Hispanics on the job,” said Rivera.

“I have that up on my office wall as a reminder, to remind me of my roots and the sacrifices of the people that came before me,” said Rivera, who is Puerto Rican.

The NYPD is now 36% Hispanic with roughly 15,000 officers — a huge increase from when his father, retired Lieutenant Andrew Rivera, became a cop in the early1960s.

“Starting off, when I entered in 1961, there were probably no more than 150 Hispanic police officers,” the elder Rivera told The Post. “Now, we make up about a third of the patrol force. That’s amazing.”

“I’m honoring his legacy, his hard work,” said Chief Rivera said of his dad.

It’s important for Hispanic folks to see high ranking people of their heritage so they know “the community has a seat at the table,” said Rivera, who started his career at the 46th precinct in 1996 and returned as commanding officer in 2014.

In the past decade, the number of Latino officers in the NYPD has increased by thousands of cops from 27% in 2015 to 36% in 2025, according to past reports.

The proportion of Latino officers in the NYPD now is actually higher than the percentage of Latinos in the general population, which is 27.1%, according to data from the City Comptroller’s office.