ALBANY, N.Y. -- It was an abnormally violent July in the city of Albany. Throughout the month, there were eight shootings involving 14 people, two of them fatal. There were also two fatal stabbings.

"We are confident that we'll hopefully be able to make arrests in most of those cases but they do, they take time," said Steve Smith, the Albany Police Department's spokesman.

As August begins, the city is trying to move forward. Mayor Kathy Sheehan says they are promoting youth activities and are planning job fairs.

"We want to make sure that we are doing all that we can to connect people in our communities where we know that we've had issues with those job opportunities and with hope for their future," Sheehan said.

This comes while police continue to make community connections -- and prove they are more than just people in uniforms.

"The reality is, we can't do it alone. There isn't going to be a police officer on every corner. It's just unrealistic. We need the community to work together with us and I think what people seem to forget is that the police are part of this community. We're part of this community. We work here. This is our office for eight hours a day," said Smith.