Public
safety has become one of the biggest issues in this year’s campaign for Rochester mayor. In
part, that’s because after a decline, Rochester’s murder rate
has been rising. In part, it’s because one of the Democratic candidates is Bob
Duffy, the popular police chief who retired to run for mayor.
           Duffy’s two principal rivals in the
Democratic primary, Tim Mains and Wade Norwood, have harshly criticized Duffy
for his reorganization of the police department. Duffy took what had been seven
police sections and combined them into two, one on the east side of the GeneseeRiver and one on
the west.
           The purpose of the reorganization
was to use the police force more efficiently and effectively, given the city’s
limited budget. A study by the Center for Governmental Research found that
under the old organization, response time and work load were seriously
affected. Police sections serving the highest-crime neighborhoods had far more
calls for help than did the sections serving low-crime neighborhoods. There
were not a corresponding number of police officers assigned to the high-crime
areas, however. The result: delays in response in the neighborhoods needing the
most service.
           CGR studied a variety of ways to
reorganize the department and recommended changing to two sections. “Moving to
this model will clearly allow the RPD to provide faster response to Calls for
Service during periods of peak demand,” said CGR’s report.
           City Council approved the
reorganization, and Duffy carried it out. CGR has now completed a study of the
effects of that change, but city officials have not released the study. Both
Mains and Norwood, however, say
that there’ve been enough anecdotal reports of citizen and police
dissatisfaction to cast serious doubts on the reorganization. Norwood wants to
abandon it; Mains is less firm, saying he’ll wait to see City Council’s
independent assessment before reaching a decision.
           Another charge by Mains and Norwood is that Duffy
didn’t move boldly enough to fill vacancies on the force. There is general
agreement that the police department has been operating with about 50
vacancies. There is less agreement, however, on how easily the force can be brought
up to full strength. Duffy says the department is hindered by the Civil Service
System, which has offered tests for police officers only once a year.
           In addition, a study ordered by
Mayor Bill Johnson noted a second factor hindering police recruitment: the
police department’s low percentage of minority officers. A federal consent
decree requires Rochester to hire at
least one minority recruit for every two white recruits, but the study found
that it’s been hard to attract enough qualified minority applicants.
           Following are edited excerpts from
our interviews with Duffy, Norwood, and Mains on
the issue of public safety.
Read City’s interview with Tim Mains by clicking here!
Read City’s interview Bob Duffy by clicking here!
Read City’s interview Bob Duffy by clicking here!
This article appears in Aug 3-9, 2005.
