PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Residents and business owners are on edge following the recent violence in Portsmouth.
“If it’s a problem in a city, you should go and try to do the best you can and make sure these problems get solved,” said Portsmouth mayoral candidate Harold Carothers III.
Portsmouth had 11 shootings alone in the month of October. Now, the people of Portsmouth are calling on city council to make a move in response to the crime in the area.
“So instead of y’all acting like everything’s cool, y’all need to work and do policies to make sure that that area going to be secure and let these people know that, before they send the kids out in this area, that y’all gonna have a safe and secure,” Carothers III said.
Residents were in outrage at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. Businesses in Olde Towne are also sharing the same concerns about the safety to conduct their business in the area.
“Our businesses, on the whole, are becoming very discouraged with the amount of crime and the recent uptick in this crime, in our Olde Towne section especially,” said Kathy Cullen, vice president of the Olde Towne Business Association, “which we are trying very hard to promote more businesses, promote more tourism, promote more families being out there in the streets.”
Cullen said the Olde Towne Business Association would like to have something positive come out of a negative situation. They are working on solutions to keep their businesses in Portsmouth.
“I know a lot of the restaurant and bar owners have suggested limiting their hours, maybe closing a little early until this problem can be addressed,” Cullen said. “Some of our local restaurants that do have bars do close a little earlier now because they’re just not seeing the traffic because of this fear of what goes on after hours.”
The city council voted 5-0, with two absent members, to start a taskforce to help reduce crime.
“It’s time for us to get the crime and gun violence task force moving,” said Councilman Mark Hugel. “I discussed with you that councilman Tillage and I would like to work with the city manager as the council liaisons to the task force,” said Councilman Mark Hugel.
Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen Jenkins took to the podium:
“I did provide to you a brief on the events over the weekend,” said Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen Jenkins. “I also briefed the Civic League on last Thursday about some of the issues that’ve been occurring. Obviously, I stand here as angry as everybody else to the things that are going on. I can assure you that as a police department, we’re not taking this lightly at all.”
At the council meeting, residents were encouraged to attend the Quarterly Chiefs Forum Wednesday night.