The town and village was home to 6,334 people at the time of the 2020 United States census.

Despatch was laid out as a planned community designed around the New York Central Railroad mainline that ran through the center of the village.

[citation needed] The local post office building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

[4] Two derailments have occurred on the double-track mainline railroad running through East Rochester.

The first occurred on October 29, 1969, when a 30-car Penn Central freight train carrying produce derailed onto West Maple Avenue (which, along with East Maple Avenue, runs parallel to the tracks between NY 153 and South Lincoln Road), crushing numerous automobiles and toppling telephone poles.

[5][6] On January 16, 2007, a 13-car CSX intermodal train traveling 60 mph (97 km/h) and carrying retail goods partially derailed at the South Lincoln underpass, spilling at least five containers and two intermodal wells onto the road below.

The wreckage extended west from South Lincoln along East Maple Avenue to Madison Street as derailed cars crushed a number of vehicles parked alongside the tracks and dumped intermodal containers into the front yards of residents on Maple.

The 200 block of East Maple Avenue, however, remained closed for repair work for several days afterward.

By General municipal Law the Village Administrator runs the day-to-day operations.

NY 153 has the highest average annual daily traffic of any street serving East Rochester proper, carrying 11,000 vehicles per day between NY 31F and Commercial and 18,000 vehicles daily from Commercial to Linden Avenue as of 2004.

Two streets, NY 153 and South Lincoln Road, pass under the mainline by way of underpasses roughly 0.5 mi (0.8 km) apart.

The East Rochester Police Department provides primary law enforcement for the town residents.