Bratton and Giulinia also made it clear that they would not turn their backs on police officers involved in confrontations with the public without clear evidence of police wrongdoing. This was not simply a matter of boosting morale; in order to motivate front-line officers to reclaim the streets, the department and the mayor needed to send a clear signal that they trusted the police and would support officers as long as they acted properly. When a police officer in the 75th Precinct fatally shot a suspect early in Bratton's tenure as commissioner, Bratton appeared before the media and almost immediately declared the "the preliminary investigating... indicates that the officer acted properly." The result of these and other efforts was a widely-observed increase in police officers' morale- a sense in the force that Bratton and Giulinia backed the police up.