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Portsmouth task force reports progress on community outreach, seeks consultant and staff support
Summary
The Crime and Gun Violence Prevention Task Force told Portsmouth City Council it has organized four committees, collected neighborhood feedback and resources, and is seeking a consultant or dedicated staff support, improved IT access, and a communications push as it moves from data-gathering toward an action plan.
The Crime and Gun Violence Prevention Task Force updated Portsmouth City Council on its organizing work, neighborhood outreach and next steps, and asked the council for help securing consulting support, routine staff liaisons and better technology access to move its committee work into an actionable citywide plan.
The task force has met since November 2024 and held its first work in earnest after Jalen Jury said he began chairing in December. "I'm Jalen Jury. I'm the chairman of the crime and gun violence prevention task force," Jury told council, and described a structure of four standing committees — community engagement, resource allocation, data and metrics, and intervention — that have been meeting monthly and working between those meetings.
The committee chairs and members told council they have begun neighborhood outreach, compiled program inventories and resource lists, and run a recent “Peace Week” with more than 22 programs. But members and council liaisons said the group needs a project manager or consultant to synthesize committee findings into a comprehensive action plan and to help navigate procurement and implementation.
"The resolution says that the task force is to develop and implement comprehensive action items that collaboratively address the need to reduce crime and gun violence," Councilman Hugo told the meeting, stressing the council's expectation that the task force produce a comprehensive plan. Hugo and Councilman Tillich said an earlier request for proposals produced only one response the first time and none after a re-advertisement; an unsolicited proposal from a Hampton-based group was later forwarded for review.
Several council members and task force speakers urged not to delay work while seeking outside help. Vice Mayor Moody said the task force "has done a great job in getting organized and forming your committees" and urged members to keep moving forward while the city pursues consultants. Task force members described collecting neighborhood intelligence by attending civic league meetings and compiling a calendar and a mechanism to record observations from those meetings.
Community engagement chair James Cullen described a philosophy for rapid, coordinated action and said, "I'm advocating for an emergency management approach to this." Cullen argued for a centralized, incident-management style coordinating team or project manager to combine public health, enforcement and community interventions and to treat repeated gun violence with sustained urgency.
Task force members and some councilors also emphasized practical needs: reliable city email and IT access for task force members, a central, searchable database of programs and funding, stronger stakeholder representation (for example, juvenile justice and the Commonwealth's Attorney), and a modest communications capability to share accurate context after incidents. Several members reported ongoing problems accessing city email and said that has hampered document sharing and collaboration.
City staff and the task force reported work already under way on a mobile application to centralize resources and permit citizens to report neighborhood concerns. "The application is going to house a list of resources," said Miss Matthews (staff liaison), and she told council the city has identified a developer and expects initial development to begin the week after the meeting. Matthews described the app as a hub that will link to existing reporting tools and resource lists.
The task force's intervention committee said it is compiling an “environmental scan” of youth and anti-violence programs and that Peace Week attendance and programming suggested local capacity to deliver services when coordinated. Members described reaching different neighborhoods and warned that solutions may need neighborhood-level tailoring rather than a single uniform intervention.
Council members and the city attorney clarified the task force's role as primarily advisory: the commission should gather data, recommend a plan and identify resources and responsibilities, while city departments and the council will be responsible for implementing actions. City leaders said they will help with staff liaisons and urged the task force to use the city manager as the formal route to request departmental support.
The council also discussed procurement options for a consultant and asked staff to sweep outstanding IT issues for task force members. Several speakers recommended a small, dedicated staff position or part-time communications support in the near term if a full consultant is not engaged immediately.
Council and task force members said the recent weekend shootings involving teenagers highlighted the urgency of better communication and neighborhood outreach; task force members urged careful, factual messaging that provides context without preempting law enforcement investigation.
The mayor closed by reiterating that public safety is a top council priority and said the council would work with the manager and departments to support the task force's next steps, including consultant search, app rollout and improved staff/IT support.
