News10NBC rides along with Rochester Police after city’s 36th homicide of 2021

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — It’s another busy weekend for Rochester Police as they patrol the streets over the Fourth of July.

News10NBC spent some time Saturday afternoon with Capt. Ryan Tauriello to get a sense of what officers are dealing with just 24 hours after the city saw its 36th homicide of the year.

After more than a year amid a pandemic, residents are celebrating the Fourth of July weekend under the watchful eyes of the Rochester Police Department.

Tauriello is ready for a long night.

"If you look at last year, we had a busy, busy night in regards to police services and things of that nature," Tauriello said. "I would expect that this year, and hopefully I’m wrong, and hopefully everyone can come down and enjoy the fireworks, and enjoy the holiday."

During our hours-long ride with Tauriello, we passed through several of the city’s problem areas for violent crimes. He says extra officers are patrolling these streets.

"We just have to try to focus on making sure that we’re visible down here, and that we are, you know, attempting to prevent it the best that we can, and that’s the hard thing about law enforcement is you can’t be everywhere at once," Tauriello said.

As we continued to drive around, different calls for police assistance constantly came in. Almost all of them minor.

Rochester’s 36 homicides so far this year have put a strain on the department.

"Those incidents, they drain manpower, and we have to go to these major incidents, shootings, things of that nature, it drains our manpower, and we run into a staffing issue," Tauriello said.

As day soon became night, Tauriello said the sheer volume of people celebrating the holiday is one of many challenges.

"Of course, we have issues with fireworks in the city, and we have issues with the ATVs, and things of that nature, and again with this weather being the way it is, which is great, those things are going to be a bit more likely to be a nuisance or problem," Tauriello said.

Our ride-along with Tauriello ended up being uneventful. He said that’s due to the time we were out — the real work started after the sun went down.