Albany's interim police chief briefed the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations on public safety and community engagement on Wednesday.
Brendan Cox made a virtual appearance before CANA members. The interim chief, picked by Mayor Kathy Sheehan to replace his successor in the role, Eric Hawkins, who left for a similar post in his native Michigan, says the pandemic and a recurring staffing shortage have made public safety a challenge and a priority.
"One of my goals is to make sure that one we address our staffing shortage and we find new, innovative ways to do that," said Cox. "We just graduated seven people from our police academy. They're out in the field training."
Cox says Albany is short 76 officers, and the department is actively recruiting, also looking to hire 10 crisis intervention workers with two supervisors to answer service calls deemed to be non-police related.
“We also want to make sure that we look to be innovative when it comes to how we can do new and innovative ways to supplement our staffing when it comes to our non-sworn staffing and our communication, so we're also hurting a little bit when it comes to our communication staffing," Cox said. "So I grew up in the city. This is the city that I still call home, still my first love, but we have to look beyond right now on our residency issues. So our communication staff, I'm going to be working with the Common Council to talk to them about, how do we open up things so non-residents can apply, because I believe we have to open that up.”
Cox says young officers are eager to connect with the community, and he says face-to-face in-person encounters are the best way to expedite that.
“Since the pandemic, Zoom has made things easier on folks, right? The virtual world has made things easier on all of us, but it's also disconnected all of us," said Cox. "And that's the world I've lived in the last three years too. I've been around to a lot of communities where we've worked technical assistance on and talked about how we connect people. You know, we're trying to connect some folks that have the hardest time being connected to services, and we've had to talk to a lot of people about it's hard to have that spirit of connection when we're all living sometimes in a virtual world. The virtual world makes it easier for all of us to connect, but sometimes that human touch gets lost.”
Cox is looking to programs to boost mental health, community outreach and partnerships, education and gun violence intervention as tools to enhance public safety.
Normans Kill Neighborhood Association president Ed Brennan says he's encouraged by the chief's commitment to community policing.
“I'm hopeful, you know, that he can, you know, apply some of his experiences to start turning some things around in Albany. Obviously, you know, addressing some of the violent crime issues, and also just some of the faith that people have in law enforcement.”
Cox encouraged CANA members to sign up for ride-alongs with police officers so they can see the city through the eyes of the men and women in law enforcement.
