Hoboken’s chief of police says that he is glad that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the death of George Floyd and says that now is the time to heal police-community relations.

“Every good cop in this country wanted that conviction,” Chief Ken Ferrante says.

Chauvin was convicted Tuesday of murder and manslaughter for pinning Floyd to the pavement with his knee for more than nine minutes, leading to Floyd’s death. The incident was caught on video and sparked protests around the world.

“The problems that that caused for police-community relations around this country last year, was very trying for tens of thousands of police officers. It was a nationwide problem,” Ferrante says.

The chief says that now is the time to repair the relationship between law enforcement and the community. He says that all police departments need to have transparency and crisis intervention training.

“You need to show your community what you’re doing, what your strategies are, what our officers deal with,” he says.

Ferrante says that police officers should be trained to not have to resort to deadly force if possible.

“We had three incidents last year where our officers could have used deadly force, and in all three cases, the suspect and the officers left that scene unharmed. It’s a training aspect,” he says. “A lot of the things that happen in this country, with bad policing, bad practices, are coming from the Midwest and the south, and we get broad-brushed nationwide.”

Ferrante says that respect goes both ways and that the community should respect what police officers are doing as well.