ORLANDO, Fla. — Mayor Buddy Dyer hosted a change of command ceremony honoring now former Chief Orlando Rolón and new acting Chief Eric Smith.

Smith has lived in Orlando for 33 years, and will serve as chief counsel to the mayor in matters of public safety.

During an interview, Smith says one of his top priorities is to strengthen ties with the community.

“You can’t alienate the community while you’re fighting crime,” he said.

Smith says he hopes to diversify his staff so that at least 30 percent of employees are women.

“We hire everyone, but we need to focus on women, and promoting them up and through the ranks,” said he said.

He will inherit several cases, including the unsolved downtown shooting that left 7 people injured. Still, the department has yet to release a suspect description.

Spectrum News requested the incident report for the shooting, but received a document that was almost entirely redacted.

Chief Smith says the city limited the details because it is still an active investigation, but says incidents like this are a rarity.

“Every once in a while, you’re going to have that incident that happens. We’re working it very strongly, we’re changing our focus on how we handle downtown, and downtown is safe,” he said.