Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren says at a time when the relationships between police departments and communities across the nation have become strained, every effort must be made to maintain and advance the level of trust between police officers and the community.
She says the creation of a new Deputy Chief of Community Relations represents an incredible investment toward building that trust.
Warren announced at City Hall that current Deputy Chief Wayne Harris will transition into that role.
"I'm very pleased to announce the creation of the new deputy chief post in the Rochester Police Department to focus specifically on community relations," she said.
According to the city, Harris will report directly to police Chief Mike Ciminelli to provide top-level coordination of the RPD's approaches to improve its Community Oriented Policing initiatives.
Deputy Chief Harris says the problems facing Rochester aren't necessarily law enforcement and he says he'll be reaching out to community groups, clergy, business and education.
"We're going to have to have conversations with all of them, and we're going to have to bring everyone to the table and put our heads together and see if we can come up with some strategies to end some of the stuff we are seeing," she said.
President of United Church Ministries, Reverend Lewis Stewart says the trust factor right now is a bridge broken.
"But it's also a bridge that can be repaired, with hard work," he said. "We're certainly going to give him a fair chance for him to do what he needs to do, in order to at least try and bridge the gap with this immense gulf of distrust between police and community."
In addition to the new deputy chief of community Relations post, Mayor Warren announced other promotions within the department she says will help it connect with and engage citizens.