Years from now, we will know whether or not Mayor Wendy Perrette and the city council picked wisely in their choice of Kendall Bullen as the new police chief.

Success will be measured in terms of trust and safety. Most of us would enjoy an increase in both of those things, so it would seem reasonable to expect both police and civilian groups to support each other.

However, at Tuesday’s city council meeting — and for several months — we’ve seen increasing tension from some parts of the community. This is unfortunate and we must remind our readers that the success of the police and of the chief depends heavily on the public.

The police have a tough job but so does the public. Right now is a time to look forward and get past rumors and allegations. Whatever happened in 2001 was settled long ago out of court. It is done.

This does not mean the police are immune from future mistakes, of course. We support transparency and we will hold our police department accountable to any future allegations of misconduct. All citizens have a right to expect professional, quality police services from anyone in uniform and the police are as accountable under the law as anyone else.

However, the police — including the new chief — deserve respect and support until the time should come when those allegations should turn to fact as determined in a court of law.

We wish the new chief well and we hope our readers will do the same.