NORFOLK, Va. — It's been a little more than a year since Norfolk Police Department Chief Mark Talbot took over leading the department.
His first year on the job was May 1, 2023.
The chief described his first year as "great" and said it's been marked with success. He said homicides are down 20% this year and non-fatal shootings are down 65%.
Chief Talbot said he attributes that success to authentic community engagement.
"We are building relationships in the right neighborhoods, we have stakeholders all over the city that are talking to us about crime and quality of life conditions, and we are spending time in our most vulnerable neighborhoods talking to the people who need to hear from us," Chief Talbot told News 3's Jay Greene.
The chief said he'd like to see more groups involved with grassroots efforts to prevent crime in their neighborhoods. He said everyone is responsible for keeping the city as safe as possible.
"What moves the needle and increases the number of people willing to talk to us is for us to be out with them and to show that we care to make it safe for them to tell us what's happening and to make sure we're good at the work that we do," Talbot said. "I think very often people don't talk to the police, and it is them not seeing their police department arresting the people that are doing bad things."
In Hampton Roads, some recent incidents of violence involved younger people. The chief told Greene he believes parents are already doing as much as they believe they can do.
"If there are parents out there that are struggling with what their kids are doing, they should seek out the support and help that is available to help them turn that situation around," he said.
The chief also had a message for kids.
"When you are young, you think that you are bulletproof and that death is an unlikely possibility," he said. "Neither is true and recognizing that if you put yourself in life-threatening situations, you dramatically increase these odds that something really bad is going to happen to you."
The conversations turned toward gangs. The chief said "many" of the violent crimes his officers investigate involve gangs.
"Is it a problem here? The degree of the problem maps on to the crime rate, so we're doing much better," the chief told Greene. "It means we're doing much better with gang or group-related crime...making sure that we're focused on groups that are driving a disproportionate number of challenges, and making sure we're recognizing particular areas of the city, times of day, days of the week."
The chief addressed situations where incidents led to Norfolk officers shooting people. There have been three such incidents in 2024—one in Wards Corner, another on Terminal Boulevard near Naval Station Norfolk, and most recently, one in the Calvert Square neighborhoods.
In each of these situations, the chief said if the officers hadn't used deadly force, they themselves would have been killed.
"In all three of those circumstances, the only way that could have changed would have been if the suspects in each would have behaved differently," he said. "Generally speaking, we have a policing philosophy that doesn't bring us into this collision course with the public. We believe in building relationships and making sure that we are taking every step possible to reduce provocations and de-escalate when we need to de-escalate."
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The chief said positive interactions with the community and violence interrupters can help reduce the amount of time officers spend in conflict with the public.
Greene asked what this means for de-escalation techniques.
Talbot said there's not a general way to answer that question, and each incident needs to be looked at separately.
"Conceptually, it does not mean that de-escalation doesn't work or necessarily failed in these instances," he said. "De-escalation is something that you work to do whether or not the outcome is what you want it to be."
Talbot said he wants the department to police the city with the lightest touch possible and that having to take a life is tragic for everyone involved.
"When a police officer uses deadly force, their career is never the same again. It weighs on them for the rest of their career, probably the rest of their life. They suffer greatly when they are forced into these scenarios," he said. "So they don't take it lightly, we look hard at each incident and we look hard at how often we're going to make sure that there isn't a better way for us to be going that work."
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The conversation flowed right into talking about the mental health of his officers when these situations arise. His department has a full-time unit that is focused on the mental health of our police officers.
"We make sure that we're paying attention to the officers who are involved in specific traumatic incidents and checking in on them, checking on their wellbeing and making sure that they get the professional assistance that they will need," he said.
Currently, the department is made up of about 550 officers, though he believes around 700 would be beneficial for the city. Talbot said the biggest challenge is keeping officers in Norfolk longer than they'd expect to stay.
Chief Talbot said attracting new officers is about how his current staff feel about their jobs.
"If hundreds of police officers are out there every day and they don't like how they are treated or the experience that they're having, it's not going to go well for anybody," he said.
Talbot told Greene some departments across the country are facing an issue where officers are leaving their current cities and going to jurisdictions where there isn't as much crime.
For Norfolk PD, Talbot said, it means he needs to hire the right officers and make sure they're effective at their work.
"So that the experience day after day isn't that we're losing the battle," he said. "That we chose to fight and making sure we're effective as we possibly can be with these challenges.
