Meaghan M. McDermott

@meagmc

Since the beginning of the year, there have been six police-involved shootings in the Rochester area.

That's a marked increase over previous years, where there have been typically no more than three in any given year, dating back to 2004, according to analysis by the Democrat and Chronicle.

The uptick concerns law enforcement officials, who worry the incidents reflect a growing lack of respect for their authority, and an increasing propensity for violent attacks on officers.

"Certain politicians, the media and others with an agenda have perpetuated a false anti-police narrative that falsely paints police with a broad brush as biased, corrupt and prone to unjust violence," said Greece Police Chief Patrick Phelan via email. "This false narrative devalues the lives of police officers and encourages violence (against police officers), pretty much justifying violence against police officers."

Two of this year's incidents involved police officers being assaulted with vehicles. Two other incidents involved suspects firing at police. And, two others involved a suspect brandishing a gun or what may have appeared to be a gun, at officers. There appear to be no particular commonalities among the suspects that tie the incidents. The ages of the men involved range from 21 to 49. Four of the civilians were black and two were white. Five of the incidents happened in Rochester, one occurred in Brighton.

►MORE: Timeline of 2016 police-involved shootings

Mike Mazzeo, president of the Locust Club, said he also senses a growing lack of respect for police authority.

"But what really concerns me for the safety of our members are the amount of guns on our streets and the number of individuals who will carry those guns without any concern for being found with guns on them," he said, calling for more officers on patrol and more resources devoted to battling "open-air" drug markets in the city. An understaffed police department in which officers are constantly running from call to call and don't have the resources to take more proactive anti-crime measures only emboldens criminals, Mazzeo said in a phone interview.

"If we can only man our car beats and don't have rover cars out there, we can't take these proactive measures and can't combat what we're seeing," he said.

That, plus the so-called "Ferguson effect" — the theory that protests and activism against police shootings and brutality are having the backlash effect of making officers afraid of doing what they need to do to keep their communities safe — are making for a criminal class more prone to violence, he said.

Cop shoots suspect in Seneca Park

The proliferation of cameras and video and how those recordings of police altercations with suspects can be taken out of context also worry some officers.

"Sometimes it's not pretty, it can be ugly to look at, but it's what we do … especially when people don't comply with our lawful orders," said Mazzeo. "There might be a reluctance on the part of some of our members to get involved in something that might be a national event."

Although there's controversy over whether or not the Ferguson effect is truly driving a national increase in homicides and other violent crimes, it's something Federal Bureau of Investigations Director James Comey has called a "chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year."

There's no denying some violent crime in Rochester has been on the rise. While the city's overall crime rate was at a 25-year low in 2015, gun violence increased. Aggravated assaults were up 15 percent last year, the number of shooting victims was up 20 percent, and charges for menacing, or threatening someone with a weapon, were up 20 percent.

►MORE: Rochester crime rate at historic low

At the same time the nation is seeing an uptick in violent crime, there's also been a national increase in the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. According to the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 17 police officers have been killed with guns so far this year — a 70 percent increase over the same period last year.

Mayor Lovely Warren's proposed budget for 2016-2017 includes additional money for the police department. Her plan would add funding for 20 additional police officers, for a total of 45 new officers in two recruiting classes over the next 12 months. It also calls for hiring two new police investigators, and civilian staffers related to the roll-out of the department's new body-worn camera program, which begins later this year.

MCDERMOT@gannett.com