Toledo’s new police chief, George Kral, talks a lot about improving community relations. For the most part, he has said and done the right things during his first few weeks as the city’s top cop.

In an interview on the next page with The Blade’s deputy editorial page editor, Jeff Gerritt, Mr. Kral said he urges his officers to communicate with residents and treat them with respect. A new recruiting strategy should result in a more diverse and representative police force. A chief’s advisory committee, made up of grass-roots community leaders, will help the Toledo Police Department alleviate emerging problems and tensions.

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These measures are important because cops cannot control crime without the community’s help, support, and respect. But Chief Kral can do more to bolster community policing. That includes encouraging more of his 614 sworn officers to live in the city they serve.

Residency gives officers a greater stake in the community, deepens their understanding of its people and problems, builds relations with residents, and increases the visibility of police in city neighborhoods. It also has collateral benefits to a central city that is struggling to maintain its population and tax base.

Some police officers, as Chief Kral noted, prefer to live outside Toledo because they don’t want to run into people they had previously arrested. Such encounters can happen anywhere and do not pose unreasonable risks to an officer; they pose far more risk to the offender.

Living in the city sets an example. Police officers routinely encourage people who may have a real reason to fear crime suspects to report and provide information. But so-called snitching can pose risks of retaliation. Police officers cannot reasonably expect a citizen with no real protections to identify and report someone who is terrorizing the neighborhood, if officers themselves fear living in the city they police.

Cities can no longer require police officers to live where they work. Nothing, however, prevents municipalities from encouraging residency and providing incentives.

To his credit, Chief Kral has taken steps on residency. He lives in the city of Toledo, providing an example to the department he leads. Deputy Chief Benjamin Tucker also lives in Toledo. Mr. Kral has publicly stated that he favors having officers live in the city they police — which is more than his predecessors did.

But the chief can do more. First, he can collect data on residency. In the digital age, determining how many of the city’s sworn officers live in Toledo, using electronic personnel files, would take minutes, maybe seconds. A police chief who is almost obsessed with data should have information about residency.

Until now, the department has not tracked how many officers live in Toledo. Nearly half of the city’s sworn officers live outside Toledo, according to estimates.

Second, Mr. Kral can encourage his officers, especially new recruits, to live in the city by asserting that residency is an important part of community policing.

Finally, Mr. Kral can ask the mayor’s office to approve incentives for residency. Residency stipends for officers are not uncommon, nor are other incentives. Under former Mayor Dave Bing, Detroit helped police officers buy tax-foreclosed homes in solid city neighborhoods.

Even a modest incentive, such as an annual bonus of $500, would send a message. After the fatal shooting last August of an unarmed teenager by a white police officer, leaders in Ferguson, Mo., committed to a series of reforms, including an increase to $300 in the monthly stipend for officers who live in the city.

Like community leaders in Ferguson, Chief Kral should make residency a plank in building bridges between the Toledo community and its police department.

First Published February 5, 2015, 5:00 a.m.