An Inside Look at the Rochester Police Department

A police department is easy to picture only when something has gone wrong. A cruiser arrives. Lights flash. People are frustrated, frightened, or angry. Sergeant Justin Collins sees a larger job in the moments before and after that call. He has spent 23 years with the Rochester Police Department, and his view of the work begins with how people are treated.

Collins joins Mark Siwiec and Corey James Moran for Episode 259 to talk about the daily realities of policing, the technology changing the work, and the challenge of keeping experienced officers in the profession. The conversation keeps returning to a simple idea. Public safety and public trust have to grow together.

A Childhood Moment That Stayed With Him

Collins traces his interest in police work back to South Buffalo. As a child, he watched officers respond after older kids took toys from him and another child. The officers brought the toys back. The moment was brief, but it gave him an early picture of what a police officer could do for someone on an ordinary street.

His original plan was Buffalo Police. A hiring freeze changed that path. Work in a bar and at City Hall helped fill the gap, then Rochester Police Department gave him his opportunity. More than two decades later, the job looks very different from the one he entered.

Technology Changed the Job, Not the Need for Judgment

Body cameras, digital records, and faster access to information have changed how officers work and how supervisors review a call. Collins welcomes the ability to look back at an encounter, learn from it, and use the record as a teaching tool. He also knows the camera changes the stakes. Officers have to be intentional in every interaction because the work can be reviewed in detail.

The conversation also reaches artificial intelligence. Collins sees software that can help supervisors search and review footage as part of the next wave of tools. He does not treat technology as a substitute for judgment. The value is in helping people see what happened, coach an officer, and improve the next response.

The Community Is the Customer

Collins brings a business and nonprofit perspective to a phrase that can surprise people in a policing conversation. He calls the community the customer. Residents are the people a department serves, and he believes service should be professional, compassionate, and consistent even when the situation is uncomfortable.

A traffic ticket is a useful example. The person receiving it may not be happy. Collins still sees room for eye contact, clear communication, professional body language, and honesty about what happened. The goal is not to make a difficult interaction pleasant. The goal is to make it fair and respectful.

Support for Officers and Their Families

For 12 years, Collins ran the Badge of Honor Association, a nonprofit he founded to support officers involved in critical incidents and the families of fallen officers. The work included events, college funds, and care packages. It came from seeing the needs that can follow an incident long after the public attention moves on.

That experience also shaped how he talks about stress. Officers are not robots, he says. The job asks people to make fast decisions while carrying the weight of crisis calls, criticism, and the expectation that they will get every moment right.

Recruiting Is Not a Quick Fix

Recruitment and retention take up a large part of the conversation. Collins argues that a department cannot wait for someone to reach the application stage and hope for the best. The work starts earlier by showing young people a career that feels meaningful, safe, and worth pursuing.

The ideal applicant has changed too. Physical ability still matters, but Collins puts more weight on communication, emotional control, and the ability to help people find a path through a problem. An officer may need to calm a situation, connect someone with resources, or explain a decision in a way that lets the person leave with dignity.

Keeping experienced officers matters just as much. Collins points to recognition, career opportunity, burnout, and the public narrative around policing as parts of the retention challenge. A department loses knowledge every time a strong officer walks out the door.

Listening Before Making Assumptions

The Listening Walks project gives that customer service idea a practical form. Officers go into specific neighborhoods, walk or knock on doors, use digital surveys, and ask residents about their needs. The department can learn about youth programs, concerns, and local priorities by listening directly instead of assuming it already knows the answer.

Those conversations can also create a different kind of contact between residents and police. Many people meet an officer during a stressful moment. A walk built around listening gives both sides a chance to talk before a crisis puts everyone on edge.

Collins wants community engagement and trust building to sit alongside violence prevention as core work for a modern police department. Episode 259 does not pretend the job is simple. It makes a case for treating the human side of the work as seriously as the emergency response.