Rochester 2023 Police Commission candidate David Winship
Name: David Winship
Education: High school, New Hampshire police standard ms and training part time academy.
Occupation: Self-employed.
Political or civic experience highlights: Former part-time police officer/deputy sheriff, police commissioner 2012-2014 and again 2021-2023.
What would be your top three priorities if you are elected?: Continue to support the officers in what they need, continue to work with the chief and other commissioners to hire qualified and quality officers to bring staffing where it should be and continue to work with my constituents if they need help with the Police Department.
What are the biggest areas in need of improvement for the department?: As any place of employment government and civil we need staffing. Hiring officers is not taken lightly so it’s a hard position to fill but we as the commissioners now working with the chief and deputy chief are trying to fill our positions to provide a safe and comfortable community, not saying it’s not now but with more officers on the street it just makes all theirs jobs just that much easier and not too overwhelming and officer safety plays a big role as well.
How can the department recruit and retain quality staff in a competitive market?: I would like to think we do a respectable job retaining our staff, the city just allowed us to provide better wages for our officers so now the city of Rochester is definitely more competitive. Our officers that have left recently is not due to not enjoying their time with Rochester, it’s usually (they) wanted to be closer to family and friends or just plain moving south possibly for climate reasons. Recruiting is tough in any profession in this day in age for anyone government or in the private sector to recruit people and honestly I don’t have an answer for that on why. I wish I did. We could solve the nation’s problems with employment.
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Rochester 2023 Police Commission candidate David Winship
