ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A week after two New York City police officers were gunned down and killed, two weeks after two Rochester Police investigators were fired upon and the same week that the man charged in connection with stabbing and blinding a veteran Rochester cop refused a plea, officers continue to serve.

“We still come to work,” Rochester Police Investigator Ebony Brown said. “We still do the job. Still put that uniform on. And we just deal with what we took an oath to do.”

Brown patrolled Rochester’s streets for more than a decade and recalls an incident when a suspect was shot she says after attempting to stab her partner.

“After that situation, [it] definitely woke me up that, you know, I could be walking down the street and just because I wear this uniform, and someone doesn't is in a bad mood that day, that anything can happen,” Brown said. “So I was more aware.”

RPD Commander Jeffrey LaFave spent part of his career working as a cop in the same Harlem area where Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora were gunned down when responding to a domestic call last Friday night.

“I'm very familiar with the area that the officers in New York City were operating,” LaFave said.

The deaths of the young officers have left police and the community in New York City, across the state, the country and in Rochester, in mourning.

“We hate wearing [mourning bands] but it's a reminder of the dangers that we face every single day,” LaFave said. “And, you know, it's sobering. It's one of these things where you just don't ever get used to it, no matter how many times it happens. But what's weird is we're not surprised.”

According to Federal Bureau of Investigation preliminary year end data, 73 officers died in felonious killings in 2021. And last year marks the highest number of law enforcement officers intentionally killed in the line of duty recorded by the FBI since 1995, excluding the 9/11 attacks.

“What does that say when your peacekeepers are being killed?” LaFave said. “It says to the community that we have a big problem. And that’s got to be fearful for someone who lives in that area that the people who are charged with caring for them and maintaining peace are being gunned down in such a violent and horrific way.”

It is a time when officers are reaching out to their brothers and sisters in blue.

Investigator Brown and Commander LaFave will have key roles in a program aimed at helping officers cope with major trauma like the death of a fellow cop or anything else in his or her life that could use some support.

“I feel like me, personally, this is what God put me here to do,” Brown said. “God put me here to help people. So this is my job.”

Brown is now with the RPD’s Resilience and Wellness Unit and Commander LaFave is the unit’s commander of administration.

“The stigma that gets attached to police officers who ask for help, and let me be very clear about this: It's OK to not be OK,” LaFave said. “And we haven't said that enough as far as addressing mental health and overall wellness when it comes to just officers in general.”

The Resilience and Wellness Program is designed to support officers’ mental, emotional and physical well-being and help them cope with stresses on and off the job.

“If you don't address the things wrong with you, your job performance suffers and you're not very good to the community that you serve," LaFave said.

Spectrum News 1 will be learning much more about the Rochester Police Department's Officer Wellness Program next week, and about how it could become a model for other police departments.