The city of Schenectady has a new police chief.
Almost a year after the departure of Chief Brian Kilcullen, who moved to Vermont to become Rutland's police chief, Mayor Gary McCarthy and Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett presided over a ceremony Tuesday celebrating their pick of Sergeant Eric Clifford as Schenectady's new chief.
The 14-year veteran was sworn in by McCarthy inside the GE Black Box Theater at Proctors. McCarthy and Bennett interviewed four members of the 145-person police department before selecting Clifford. McCarthy concedes it was a difficult decision. "Each one had different strengths and different assets. Eric was a little bit more broad-based in terms of his command both in the patrol division and the investigative division. His engagement within the law enforcement community and the community as a whole, set him apart in his vision to kinda redefine community policing, build on the strengths of the department, apply technology and really message that component of public safety and security within our community, set him a little bit apart and I was proud to make that appointment today."
Clifford gave a media presentation encapsulating his vision for the police department going forward.
His plan includes having officers employ a high level of community engagement with an emphasis on modern technology including connecting video monitoring cameras throughout the city, enabling police to monitor and quickly respond to any emergency.
"I wanna be able to give the officers the ability to get out of the cars more often and interact with people. I wanna challenge them to go to events even when they're not working and engage with the community in regular street clothes so that everybody out in the community gets to know us better. I strongly encourage everybody to live in the city if they haven't purchased a house anywhere else. We wanna become more of the city 'cause I feel that that is important," said Clifford.
Clifford brushed off critics who have emphasized that he himself does not live in the city. Clifford told reporters he is willing to move, a condition the mayor has set for the job, and expects to put down new roots in six months. Clifford says with police under the microscope throughout the country, he's confident his officers will excel. "When you treat people with dignity and respect, when you convey trustworthy motives, everything's going to fall into place. We can't change what's happening in the national spotlight. All we can change is what's happening in Schenectady."
