News Release - Mayor Warren, Chief Ciminelli Announce Plan to Move RPD to Five-Section Patrol Model

City of Rochester

News Release

(Friday, April 11, 2014) – Mayor Lovely A. Warren and Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli today announced a plan to re-organize the Rochester Police Department to create a five-section patrol model that would return Officers to a neighborhood beat structure so they can engage in true community policing activities.

“The primary benefit of the reorganization is a closer and more harmonious relationship between the community and RPD, as well as achieving a more effective policing model,” said Mayor Warren. “This model is the result of rigorous research and painstaking analysis and is responsive to the expressed desires of the community for neighborhood policing, as well as an internal push from the rank-and-file Officers to return to single car beats. I want to commend and thank Chief Ciminelli and his team for their diligence in producing such a thorough model to begin this important process.”

“We have reached the first milestone in our reorganization project,” said Chief Ciminelli. “While much remains to be done, we are looking forward to engaging the community and our officers on this project as we continue to move ahead to achieve a more effective and responsive policing model.”

The new model is the result of extensive analysis of data over the last five years under the current two-section patrol structure. Chief Ciminelli emphasized that the model must also weigh the practical considerations and real-world experiences of Officers and members of the community. To reach that balance, he has proposed a phased implementation schedule, or “reorganization in place,” with the new sections working out of existing police facilities while undergoing a rigorous evaluation using established data-driven metrics.

A phased implementation allows the RPD to maintain a maximum level of flexibility and not commit to significant capital investments until the model has generated sufficient data points to validate it, including experiences reported by officers and citizens.


The proposal unveiled today considered such factors as the number of police hours worked in each section of the city, the number of calls generated in each area of the city, average drive time spent responding to calls for service, the population density of neighborhoods, responding to calls, geographic area, and the length of city streets in each section.

Under the five patrol-section plan, the Center City Section would extend beyond the traditional boundaries of Downtown to include the Corn Hill, South Wedge and Wadsworth Square residential neighborhoods, the East End and Brown Square entertainment districts and the High Falls business district.

The proposed Center City section accounts for on-going changes and anticipates future developments in this area of the city, including the reconstruction of portions of the Inner Loop to an at-grade boulevard and Monroe Community College’s planned move to State Street.

Two sections would be located entirely on the east side of the Genesee River and would be divided along a north-south axis, primarily along North Goodman Street. The two remaining sections would primarily be on the west side of the river, separated by Interstate 490. The southern section will span the Genesee River to include all of Genesee Valley Park and the University of Rochester campuses.

The implementation plan will include several public meetings to educate the public and solicit feedback. The schedule for those meetings will be announced at a later date.

Visit www.cityofrochester.gov/rpdreorganization to learn more about the plan and follow its progress.

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News Media: For more information, contact Communications Director Christine Christopher at 428-7135.

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