David Smith, the interim chief of the Rochester Police Department (RPD), speaks to community members, activists, politicians, and Rochester City Council members at a Gun Violence Forum at the Mercantile on Main Building in Downtown Rochester on Nov. 1, 2021. A community member questioned the panel at the meeting, asking, “Why do you feel as if we should put ourselves in positions to where we go out there and we have these conversations with police when we know for a fact, because it’s been proven, history repeats itself, that you guys don’t provide any protection for us in those instances?” Smith responded, saying “I would love to have bike patrols out there. I would love to have foot patrols out there. I would love to have school resource officers, but we have a personnel crisis. I am down 61 officers, true vacancies.”