Rochester in New York gets its first female chief of police amid Daniel Prude row

Rochester’s Mayor Lovely Warren on Saturday announced the appointment of the first female chief of police as Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan fills the place after La’Ron D. Singletary resigned.

The former chief’s resignation comes following that he had other commanding officers participated in the cover up of Daniel Prude’s death. Prude, a black man under the influence of PCP (Phencyclidine), was physically restrained by the police officers on March 23 this year. An 88 minute video of body camera recordings came up in August, exposing an attempted cover-up by the police department.

Warren, who herself is a black woman, made the announcement official. Sullivan will take on the post on October 14. Sullivan will come out of retirement to hold the role as the Rochester government considers its next moves in rethinking how the police department operates in light of recent protests and violence.

It has been reported that the Rochester Police Department’s response to the civil unrest involving the death of Prude has cost taxpayers almost $1.4 million in overtime hours since the end of August.

“Ironically, I left the police department because I wanted to help people stay out of jail,” Sullivan said during the news conference Saturday.