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UPDATE: Warren spokesperson Christine Christopher says that the downtown substation will stay open. The only question, she says, is whether it would become part of another section.

This just came over from Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren: 

(Incidentally, the part about the downtown police station is curious. Warren said in an interview earlier this week that the downtown station would remain intact.) 

City of Rochester

News Release

Mayor Warren, Interim Police Chief Ciminelli Announce Timetable for RPD Reorganization

(Friday, January 17, 2014) - Mayor Lovely A. Warren and Interim Police Chief Michael Ciminelli announced today that a proposal to expand the Rochester Police Department's patrol divisions to at least four divisions is nearly complete and should be ready for implementation in the next fiscal year.

"I want to thank Interim Chief Ciminelli and his staff for moving forward with this plan with such expediency," said Mayor Warren. "Putting a police section in each of the Rochester's four quadrants will help the Police Department better serve the citizens they are sworn to protect."

A proposed schedule for the RPD Reorganization Project will be presented to Mayor Warren next week and will include provisions to solicit community feedback on the project. The cost and resources needed to fully implement the reorganization will be determined in the planning process.

The RPD has been operating under a two-division patrol structure since 2004. Prior to that, the RPD worked in seven patrol sections.

The objective of the current reorganization project is to develop and implement a reorganization of RPD from its current two-division patrol structure into at least four patrol sections.

The status of the Downtown area as a separate section, or as part of another section, will be determined as part of the project.

The primary benefits sought from reorganizing back to multiple sections are to:
* Better promote community policing in the city of Rochester;
* Enable a closer and more harmonious relationship between the community and RPD;
* Achieve an overall more effective policing model in the city of Rochester.