Before long, there will be more cops on Kingston’s streets.

Earlier this week, the Common Council approved funding sought by Mayor Steve Noble to hire three new officers for the Kingston Police Department. The plan will increase KPD’s authorized strength from 71 to 74. It’s a move, Noble said, vital to the department’s pivot to a community policing model, based on increasing engagement and building trust with the public.

“I believe we need to add these additional resources to assist in keeping our residents safe,” said Noble in a July 29 funding request to the council, “while building better relationships with our community, block by block, front porch by front porch.”

In a unanimous vote, the council approved Noble’s request to take $77,986 from the city’s fund balance to fund the positions through the end of the year. Going forward, the new positions are expected to add about $225,000 to the KPD’s annual budget.

Faced with a spike in violent crime and nationwide calls for police reform in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Noble and Kingston Police Chief Egidio Tinti have sought to introduce community policing practices, like foot patrols and other initiatives, to get city cops out of their cars and interacting with citizens. The goal, Noble said, is to rebuild trust between Kingston police and communities of color that bear the brunt of both increased crime and more heavy-handed law enforcement efforts to crack down.

The community focus, said Tinti, emerged from a series of meetings between police officials and city residents. “The one thing we keep hearing is that people want to know their police officers,” said Tinti. “They want to see them out of their cars interacting, making those connections.”

But community policing efforts have consistently fallen short due to a lack of available officers. In 2009 there were 81 Kingston police officers. Today there are just 71. With vacations, sick time and officers out on long-term disability, Tinti said many days the department’s actual strength is 60 or fewer cops.

Meanwhile, a clause in the city’s contract with the PBA mandates minimum staffing levels on each of three shifts. Even with overtime incentives, the chief said, staffing policy has made it nearly impossible to field officers for special community policing details outside of their regular shift assignments.

In addition to padding the roster to allow for more flexibility in deploying officers, the new hires will allow the city to dedicate one officer to work full-time with the county’s new AVERT task force.

The task force, run under the umbrella of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, combines the efforts of police, social services and mental health professionals to reach out to youth at risk of becoming victims — or perpetrators — of gun violence with offers of assistance, along with warnings about the consequences of continued criminal activity.