A common council vote has cleared the way for acting Chief Steven Krokoff to lead the Albany Police Department on a permanent basis. Erin Vannella joined us with more from Albany City Hall.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Albany finally has a new police chief. The common council unanimously approved Steven Krokoff as the leader of the city's 340 member department.

This is the first time in the city's history the mayor's pick had to be confirmed by the common council. This comes as no surprise given that several members endorsed Krokoff both publicly and privately during the search. From the beginning of this long 10 month process, he's won support from his ideas for community policing.

"It's about empowerment. So some of the things you've heard tonight are about how the community becomes empowered how they start to work together with the police department nothing would please me more than to have the people in the community recognize what power they actually have in keeping their communities safe," Krokoff said.

Krokoff is a 17-year veteran with the department. He has been acting police chief since September when then chief James Tuffey left amid allegations he used a racial slur in a conversation with his assistant chief.