Residents feel 'safer' after weekend

Rochester officials say they hope more arrests means safer streets. So far, members of the community say they have felt a stronger police presence and have seen positive effects in their neighborhoods.

“I'm glad Mayor Duffy is taking back the community,” said Ashley Leonard, a concerned resident.

“It's a good thing,” said Katie Harvey, a city homeowner. “It's been needed a long time.”

And Monica Cortez agrees.

“I hope it's good for the neighborhood,” she said. “I hope it keeps the kids of the street.”

Cortez lives with her husband and two young children in a neighborhood near Driving Park Avenue.

“I've been in this neighborhood 14 years,” Cortez said, “and I've watched it turn from a good neighborhood to a terrible neighborhood.”

But Cortez says the stronger police presence she has seen over the last few days could be changing that.

“They have been stopping the kids out here, making them go home,” she said. “They've been using their lights house by house just to see who's hanging out.”

City police officers are working 12-hour shifts to put an end to youth gangs, drug dealing activity and gun violence.

“I'm hoping we fill the court dockets up,” Police Chief David Moore said.

And members of a Hudson Avenue neighborhood say they’re off to a good start. Police were on watch all weekend, making sure people just “hanging out” got out of the neighborhood.

“I feel very safe,” Leonard said. “I can sit on my front porch again, and everything's everything.”