Public Safety Examined at Rochester Budget Hearings

Budget hearings at Rochester City Hall include a focus on public safety early this week.

City Council members are questioning a number of departments, including Fire and Police, emergency communication and neighborhood and business development.

Rochester Police Chief James Shepard told councilmembers that response times have gone up slightly, due to changes in the number of personnel in the department.

Chief Sheppard adds that there are some calls the department categorizes as priority one calls that do not necessarily result in a priority one response. Sheppard says sometimes officers have to address another call while responding to the original one.

A public hearing on both the city and city school budget will be held Wednesday afternoon at City Hall. Council is expected to vote on both June 19th.