Full Notification

The Portsmouth Police Department would like to remind our citizens that reporting suspicious activity in your community can help stop crime or help officers and investigators locate the suspects once a crime has occurred. We understand that your first instinct when you see someone in your community pulling on door handles on cars may be to approach them or confront them about their behavior. DO NOT DO IT! The Portsmouth Police Department asks that you take a moment to assess the situation and follow these three steps when you see suspicious activity or behavior or a crime in progress:

#1: Call 911 immediately if it is a crime in progress. You can also call our Police Non-Emergency Line at (757) 393-5300 to report all suspicious persons, activity, etc.

#2: Write down as much information as you can about the activity or person you see for responding officers when they arrive. This can include how many individuals are involved, what they were doing that caught your attentions, etc.

#3: Continue to be a good witness. Write down clothing descriptions of the suspects to include their race, gender, height, weight, hair color and style, eye color (if known); the vehicles or mode of transportation that they took when they left the scene; which direction they traveled when they left the scene, etc.

Although you do have a right to protect yourself and your property, do not put yourself at unnecessary risk. It is not worth risking your freedom or your life to protect property. Property can be replaced, you cannot. It is important to remember: you CANNOT protect property with violence.