"Good evening, residents of Wards 5 and 6. My name is Richard Krauss. I'm running for police to represent you for police commission in our wards. Lived in the city of Rochester almost my entire life. I've been a law enforcement officer for 24 years. I've held the rank of the chief of police in the town of Milton before retiring in 2024. I still currently work as a part-time police officer for the town of Milton and hold my law enforcement certification.

I believe all police departments should be community oriented and should be community driven first and foremost. One of the tasks of the police commission is making rules and regulations for the city's police department. I have significant experience in this area. Under my direction, the Milton Police Department was one of the first two agencies in the state of New Hampshire to roll out the body cameras, both policies and procedures, as well as daily use of those body cameras. And now 13 years later, um almost every single agency in the state of New Hampshire is using body cameras. Body cameras save us money, but they also protect both the citizens and the police department and police officers in their interactions.

One of the tasks I'd like to see the commission work on is getting more grants, more highway safety grants to assist our police department in traffic enforcement and everyday enforcement on our roads for highway safety. One thing that we know for a fact is the more visible our police officers are on a daily basis, the more crime will be driven down as they'll see the officers. People are less likely to commit a crime directly in front of a police officer. So, if the commission can work with the police chief and the staff to get more grants, we can push more of our officers out on overtime instead of taking our duty officers off of those tasks to try and cover those traffic enforcement responsibilities.

We are one of the most the busiest police departments in the state of New Hampshire. I think the police commission has to be aware of that and we also have to be aware of the fact that we cannot be as a police commission be a hindrance to our police command staff. We have to be able to assist them in the hiring process to get an effective and efficient hiring process but also hire the best candidates.

I would appreciate your vote in November for Wards Five and Six Police Commission."

Notes:

The Public Information and Community Engagement Office for the City of Rochester is pleased to announce that the Meet the Candidates video series is now available for viewing ahead of the upcoming Municipal Election.

The nonpartisan series introduces voters to candidates for Mayor, City Council, School Board, and Police Commission. Each candidate was given up to three minutes to speak directly to voters, share their priorities, and present their personal message.

To ensure fairness and transparency, all videos were recorded live in a single take, without edits, hosts, or predetermined questions.

The views and opinions expressed in the following video are those of the candidate and do not necessarily reflect the views of the City of Rochester, its elected officials or staff. The content is presented as part of a public information effort to provide equal opportunity for all candidates to address the community.

Transcript was taken directly from the GovTV website closed captioning. AI added bold/italic fonts for emphasis and separated paragraphs where appropriate.

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