ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The new interim chief of the Rochester Police Department is now officially on the job.
In a two-part one-on-one exclusive interview with Spectrum News reporter Wendy Wright, Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan talks about her plans for the department.
The first female top cop in the history of the RPD starts her new role, on an interim basis for the next year.
Herriott-Sullivan begins during a tumultuous time for the department and for the city, and says she’s up for the job.
Herriott-Sullivan: “Well, I am one to, I like to do my homework ... I don't like to, to really fully comment on things that I need to get a little bit of background on.”
Wendy Wright: "What went through your mind when you heard about everything that happened with the Daniel Prude case?"
Herriott-Sullivan: “It was tough to watch, in the sense that you know so many people were impacted. Obviously Mr. Prude, his family ... the officers. That’s a priority, obviously. I want to get briefed on that whole case. But whatever the circumstance, you've got all of these people being impacted in a major way and you've got national attention on it. It's ... you've had protests at people's homes. I could understand where there were that people have a right to protest but it always concerns me when, if they've got family, spouses, children, you know, I'm not necessarily comfortable seeing them involved in it but certainly ... you have a right to protest and call your public officials out.”
Wendy Wright: "I think you said this at the news conference, that you're open to communicating with everyone, that's one of the things you want to do, including some of the folks with the Black Lives Matter movement like Ashley Gant, Stanley Martin. They're still very concerned about their demands being met. Will you take a look at their demands?"
Herriott-Sullivan: “So it's so important to be transparent where you can.”
Wendy Wright: "Defending the police is very controversial. What are your thoughts on that?"
Herriott-Sullivan: “I'm not crazy about the term 'defunding,' because people put their own definition on that. So it could lead to misunderstandings about what that means, exactly.”
Wendy Wright: "Can you tell us what some of your top priorities are?"
Herriott-Sullivan: “I can tell you that is definitely going to be on an initial listening tour and mode. I want to listen to the community. I want to listen to the police officers, because at the end of the day, those are my staff members, so I gotta listen to them, I gotta hear what they have to say.”
Wendy Wright: “One of the things is training, that there needs to be an elevated level of training. What are your thoughts on what needs to happen with training?”
Herriott-Sullivan: “Well, I want to look at it and get a sense of what we teach now when we have people in the academy, what do we teach them. And what are best practices, and where are we within that? So that would be something I would want to understand first, but yeah, definitely training’s a priority, because I've learned early on that I can't, me personally, I can't get upset with people for not doing what I need them to do, if I haven't told them what I need them to do.
“I'm certainly going to give it my best. And we'll see what happens. But that I can promise you yeah, I'll give it my best shot.”