ROCHESTER, N.Y. — After the holiday weekend, the interim chief of the Rochester Police Department, Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, will turn in her uniform and return to the job she held prior to becoming chief.
Was she expecting this past year to be even close to what it was?
“No, I wasn’t,” Herriott-Sullivan said. “I wasn’t. I really was not … Think about it. Some of those things you can’t predict. I mean who can predict crime on an exact level? You just can’t. And so those surges we were dealing with across the country, not just Rochester, I mean who could have predicted that?”
Herriott-Sullivan agreed to take the helm of the RPD during a challenging time for the department – the same year it was coping from the fallout of the death of Daniel Prude while in police custody and the unrest that followed.
“I resisted at first, because who wants to involve themselves in something like that?” she said. “The conflict for me, was, I prayed about it, and my sense was it was the thing for me to do.”
Immediately going to work on a 90-day plan for positive change, Herriott-Sullivan said she took the job to make real, systemic change on the force — but the COVID-era, anti-police sentiment was growing – along with crime.
To top it off, there were a number of allegations of excessive use of force by officers, including shootings.
“That many incidences where it called for an officer-involved shooting – I mean that’s just crazy. Crazy,” she said.
The RPD leader set out to work with the community, offering transparency.
“Get the people who are causing the problems, causing the neighborhoods to deteriorate and for those of us who are just trying to go to work and go to school, just, we just want to be left out of it,” Herriott-Sullivan said. “I really worked hard at that. And, and I think we've gotten to, I think it's helped in our relationship building with the community.”
The interim chief initiated several police reform efforts, including new officer training programs.
“We did our best to listen, and come up with strategies that the community could put their arms around,” she said.
Herriott-Sullivan came to the sixth floor to fill the void left when Mayor Lovely Warren fired Chief La’Ron Singletary during the fallout of the Prude investigation.
“I know what’s out there at times and what people may say, but she really did not interfere a lot in the department,” she said. “I just really don’t want her to have that label, per se. But she’ll be the first to tell you we don’t always agree sometimes.”
Herriott-Sullivan’s last day on the job will be Wednesday. How has she changed in the last 12 months?
“I would say, definitely stronger,” she said.
And now she’s ready to pass the torch.
“So it feels right to move on,” said Herriott-Sullivan. “And I'm doing all I can to, you know, make sure the department’s ready for the next phase. To make sure the mayor-elect has what he needs to be able to get ready to lead the department.”
Her deputy chief of operations, Dave Smith, will step in on an interim basis.
“It’s been a busy year and I’ve told people it may have been one year, but it felt like three,” said Herriott-Sullivan. “But I’m OK with that. That’s not a complaint. It just means I’m glad I’m going to be able to get some sleep in the evenings, that’s all.”
Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan says she will miss her friends and colleagues at the Public Safety Building, but leaves with no regrets.