Eight hundred new police officers were sworn in Thursday by Police Commissioner William Bratton, who told them they are joining the NYPD at a time of change for the department and for policing. NY1's Dean Meminger filed this report.

Eight hundred officers graduated from the police academy Thursday in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden. 

Commissioner William Bratton said they're hitting the streets at a time when policing is under scrutiny, especially from communities of color.

"We are engaged in a major effort, a major undertaking to heal wounds with communities that feel that we have not done enough to keep them safe, even though we have made this community so much safer," said Bratton. "We are in a time of dealing with terrorism. We are still dealing with the issues of race."

Bratton said he's confident these officers will help to resolve some of those issues as well as push crime down further.

These new officers were among the first to receive new training ordered after the police chokehold death of Eric Garner last year.

"It is a class that is the beginning of the future of the NYPD in terms of how we train them, how we introduce them to the neighborhoods, and we have very high expectations," said Bratton.

Many of the new graduates come from police families, including John Healy, whose brother Kenneth Healy was hit in the head with a hatchet in what the NYPD said was a terrorist attack. That didn't stop his younger brother from joining the force.

"Not at all," John Healy said. "We come from a long line of police officers, and I look up to him every day. And he's made a great recovery, and it's still a great job. And there's a lot of people, 35,000 cops helping me out every day."

Kenneth Healy was taking photos with people on the street when he was attacked, but he agrees with the push for more community policing.

"It helps the community, it helps you to know what's going on," Kenneth Healy said.

Bratton warned the graduates that they, too, could be the next officer hurt. But he also said they were making the right decision to serve and to protect.

Next week on Wednesday, 1,200 new recruits will be sworn into the police academy for their six months of training, one of the largest classes to enter the academy in many years.