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PORTSMOUTH — If you want to know who’s in the running to become Portsmouth’s next police chief, you’ll have to show up to a public event Thursday night.
The city narrowed its search to four finalists who will answer questions at a community forum. But City Manager Angel Jones said she will not release their names until the event, which starts at 6 p.m. in I. C. Norcom High School’s auditorium.
When The Virginian-Pilot asked why the city won’t identify the candidates, interim City Attorney Burle Stromberg cited an exemption to the state’s Freedom of Information Act that gives public officials wide latitude to keep personnel information secret. The state’s law doesn’t prevent governmental bodies from releasing such information, but they can choose to withhold it.
“Releasing the names of prospective employees is particularly sensitive, as many could be employed and not want their current employers to know they are applying elsewhere,” Stromberg wrote in an email. “It would cause a chilling effect on future applicants.”
In an interview this week, Jones said she told the candidates she wouldn’t identify them until Thursday’s public meet-and-greet.
Portsmouth conducted a national search to fill the job of the city’s top cop, garnering 22 applications. Jones said one of the finalists is an internal candidate. She declined to say who that person is, but Scott Burke has been serving as interim police chief since September, when Angela Greene was placed on administrative leave. She was fired in November.
Officials could announce who gets the job within three weeks, she said.
“A police chief is one of the most significant positions in city government,” Jones said. “It is the one position that sets the tone for law and order in a community.”
[ Virginian-Pilot Editorial: A bold choice by Portsmouth ]
The city’s search comes on the heels of three tumultuous years for the department.
In 2019, former Chief Tonya Chapman said she was forced to resign after she tried to modernize police culture. Chapman said the department was deeply infected with systemic racism, the likes of which she said she’d never seen in her law enforcement career.
Those concerns surfaced again last year, following a June protest and vandalism at the city’s Confederate monument. Greene, who was hired from within the department to replace Chapman, announced felony charges against 19 people — including state Sen. Louise Lucas, NAACP leaders, public defenders and a School Board member.
At the time, a Virginian-Pilot investigation found eight other current and former Portsmouth officers agreed with Chapman’s allegations.
A judge later dismissed all charges in the case against Lucas and others at the request of the city’s elected prosecutor, who said the charges weren’t supported by probable cause.
Much political fallout followed: Then-City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton suspended Greene. Pettis Patton resigned under threat of being fired by the City Council. Later, the interim city manager fired Greene the day charges related to the monument were dismissed.
Greene has since sued the city and others, alleging wrongful termination and defamation. That and other suits stemming from the monument case remain pending.
Jones said she plans to address concerns about systemic racism with the four police chief finalists.
“Whoever the chief is, (they’re) going to be tasked with ensuring that there’s nothing that exists in the department that would prohibit anyone from having a fair and equitable opportunity to succeed,” she said.
Jones said she’s having that conversation across city departments: “We want to go through and do a complete assessment so that we can identify if it exists, and if it exists, we need to fix it.”
She said she’s looking for a chief who is a hands-on leader with experience working in a diverse city, building community trust and holding staff accountable.
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“Accountability means that everyone is treated in the same manner, regardless of anything that may be different about them,” Jones said.
While in Portsmouth, the candidates will interview with city department heads and a panel of police officers representing different ranks. All officers are invited to attend the interview process and submit feedback, Jones said.
She said she’ll interview the finalists Friday and will take the evaluations from all panels — including the community forum — into account.
Portsmouth’s new chief will start at a time when staffing is short and the community has been calling for a plan from public officials to curb gun violence.
“This is a community that has, really, a crime epidemic that is in progress,” Jones said. “I need someone that understands that all people, all parties, all stakeholders need to work collaboratively together to find solutions. The solution will not come out of just police.”
“I need a police chief who’s willing to roll up their sleeves and come into this community with the mindset that they’re going to reestablish trust.”
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com