In the wake of the Albany’s 10^th homicide, the newly sworn-in police chief has laid out his vision for the department, including a continued strong emphasis on community policing.

Chief Eric Hawkins, who took over the top job officially last week, sat down exclusively with Spectrum News on Friday.

“You're not going to have any chief that's going to come into this city, wave a magic wand and everything goes away,” said Hawkins, who becomes the ninth police chief in the past 20 years.

While he’s spent three decades in law enforcement – it wasn’t quite his first childhood dream.

“My first aspiration was to be the Michael Jordan,” he said.

Quickly realizing that wouldn't be the case, Hawkins switched paths, thanks in part to a tip from a classmate that getting into a police academy could help pay for college.

“I started to realize that this is a career that I could really enjoy,” Hawkins said.

Up until recently, he spent his career in Southfield, Michigan, most recently spending six years as chief. But an e-mail about an opening in Albany piques his interest.

“The more I looked at it, I started to realize that Albany really was a good fit for me,” he said.

He's already starting to look at what programs he implemented in Michigan will work here – including assembling a team to possibly restructure the department.

“How can we effectively provide a high level or service to this community with fewer officers? What is that number of officers? Where should they be placed?” he said are among the questions he’s mulling.

But immediate concerns stretch much larger than organizational changes.

Hawkins watched from Michigan as a violent summer unraveled in Albany. There have been 10 homicides this year – four in July alone. The city’s 10^th came this week following a shooting on North Swan Street.

“What I have to do is to not let my officers get frustrated by this and not let the community get so frustrated that they don't want to work with the police department,” Hawkins said. “We've got to continue to reach out.”

It's a task the new chief says he is up for – and one that relies on a good relationship with residents.

“There have been some challenges and I have people who are saying ‘we don't want you to fix our problems, but we want you to come in and help us resolve some issues.’ That's very, very exciting to me as a chief because I know I can do that,” he said.