Mike Mazzeo, president of Rochester Police Locust Club, has been doing this a long time and yet when asked about the men and women he represents, he's overcome with emotion when he thinks about their safety today.

"We don't need any more people hurt. The last couple of days, the events that have taken place across this country involving officers, is wrong. They're tired. They're frustrated. They're nervous, but they're also professionals and trying to do a very, very difficult job,” he said.

Mazzeo says the weekend started out peacefully in a protest he understands, and says was everyone's constitutional right to be a part of.

Then things escalated and the officers responded as they were told to do.

He traces back some of the overall distrust between the police and public to a lack of understanding and interaction in their day-to-day work.

"Ultimately, we're not going to get rid of police in this country. I think we need to get back to the point where they're part of the neighborhoods and not seen as outsiders. It's been 16 years since we had our sections out in the neighborhoods. The minute they took them out of the neighborhoods we were voicing our concerns to put them back,” he said.

Mazzeo also calls on the police and city leadership to be more transparent, especially in this day and age when information travels so quickly.

If there's an investigation involving an officer, let the public know you're doing something about it, he says. Release what you know and then update the community on your findings in a timely way.

"It will quell a lot of concerns of the feeling that nothing is ever done. Because an investigation can take months and the public never knows, were the officers exonerated? Were they disciplined?" he said.

Moving forward, Mazzeo says everyone needs to have a voice at the table, including police officers.

"When we get to have these relationships, you start to build trust, you start to know the people you're dealing with, and you can get a lot more done. You can get beyond the rhetoric and get right to work," he says.

“[We] may not ever agree on certain things but we can certainly try to get to some common ground."