POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. --- Eight Poughkeepsie officers were promoted to a variety of positions, including captain and lieutenant. Poughkeepsie Mayor Rob Rolison also swore in Thomas Pape as the city’s new police chief.

Pape said his goal is to build a better relationship between the police and the community.

"Being more community-oriented is something every officer is going to have a role in," Pape said. "Every day they get out of line up and go into the street, that's their goal ... to be with the community."

Rolison said new management will assist in training new officers and help to provide increased protection for city residents. 

"They're able to give their educational background, supervision and policing to the younger officers," the mayor said.

"[We are] getting out in the community and being helpers rather than enforcers," Pape added.

The first shootings of the year happened in a span of three days at the end of January. City officials said the promoted officers and the rest of the Poughkeepsie PD will be working with the Department of Family Services to roll out a new community policing program called SNUG.

"Unfortunately, a lot of these shootings, these violent acts, are taking place because they're going to happen anyway, whether you have 10 officers of 50 officers on the street," Rolison said.

"The idea is not really to solve crimes, it is to prevent them. It's an outreach program, it's a violence disrupter program, and it's worked in other cities around New York State, and I'm confident it's going to work here in Poughkeepsie," Pape said.

The city received a $300,000 grant from the Department of Criminal Justice Services. It will allow violence interpreters to go out in the community and talk to victims and potential victims of crimes to prevent future violence.

"These are people who have a relationship established with people who are involved in these types of violent acts,” Rolison said. "We look to identify people who can be further victims get with those victims, get with potential shooters, tell them to cool it."

City officials said they expect the new community policing program to be rolled out in the next few months.