Portsmouth police took a look at crime prevention this week.
That's why News 3 stopped in first to talk to Eugene Swinson, co-founder of Big H.O.M.I.E.S. Community Outreach, at his community center Wednesday.
Swinson is just one of many people in Portsmouth who wants to help kids thrive. He does that by keeping his ears to the ground, mediating issues and building relationships.
Watch: Portsmouth leaders looking at long-term plans to address crime
"A lot of is it through opportunities. Sometimes it's just being an ear for them, someone to call," explained Swinson.
He elaborated, saying he's not a certified 'violence interrupter' but much of what he does is the same. He knows that providing kids resources and support makes a difference when it comes to crime reduction.
"When we first started, especially for me specifically focusing on youth gun violence, they were shooting every day. Eight o'clock in the morning, nine o'clock at night, know what I'm saying? . . . Of course some of that stuff still happens but not as frequent. For us, that's how I measure it, the frequency. And the fact that we're in the neighborhood and we know which kids were showing signs of going that way and if we've been dealing with them, we know we don't have to worry about them," said Swinson.
Watch: Portsmouth Police Department partners with community for anti-crime initiative
Crime prevention through violence interruption, other community efforts, and technology, were topics at the Portsmouth Police Department Wednesday too as police chief Stephen Jenkins gave his quarterly crime report.
Chief Jenkins explained what's been working, though there's always more work to be done.
"One of the things I do like, is there are a lot more collaborations that are happening behind the scenes," said chief Jenkins.
Watch: Portsmouth chief breaks down crime stats, calls on community to take action
He also broke down the numbers. This year to date Portsmouth is up by one homicide compared to last year during the same time frame, but he said in this year's second quarter there's been a nearly 20 percent reduction in violent crime and property crime combined.
"To be honest, I will take any reduction in crime," explained chief Jenkins. "We're also trying to galvanize our other stake holders, community resources, our city resources to look at this problem as there are certain areas that need more medicine than others, so we are trying to be very direct [with our resources]."
He added that Portsmouth United, a community-focused effort to reduce crime that rolled out earlier this year, will have weekly meetings starting this fall.
The big takeaway from police this quarter: public safety should be a team effort and a responsibility for all.
