Just a few days into her new job, Portsmouth City Manager Tonya Chapman fired Police Chief Renado Prince on Tuesday, Portsmouth City Council members say.
The chief, who has been with the department since 2018, was promoted from assistant to chief in August. With nearly 40 years of law enforcement experience under his belt, he spent most of his career in North Carolina working in the Wilmington Police Department and serving as chief of police at the airport in Jacksonville, N.C. He’s also a retired Air Force veteran.
Councilman Bill Moody told The Virginian-Pilot he received a phone call Tuesday afternoon from City Attorney Lavonda Graham-Williams confirming the termination. Moody said she characterized it as a personnel issue and didn’t provide additional details.
Neither Chapman nor Prince could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Moody said he was with Prince over the weekend at a Fourth of July event hosted by the Cradock Civic League. It appeared that Prince was highly visible around town and well-liked, he said.
“From that respect, I hate to see him go,” Moody said.
Councilwoman Lisa Lucas-Burke, who also received a call from Graham-Williams, said she’s “frustrated beyond relief right now.”
She told The Pilot that Graham-Williams cited a “breach of trust” that led to the firing, but the city attorney didn’t provide additional details. Lucas-Burke said former City Manager Angel Jones went through a thorough vetting process before promoting Prince to police chief, so it was “pretty much citizen-supported.”
“I don’t know what this is going to do to the department,” Lucas-Burke said.
With the termination taking place on Chapman’s third work day — she started Thursday — Lucas-Burke said she fears it signals more firings could be on the way, which puts the city at risk of losing quality people.
“It’s a travesty if we’re headed down this avenue,” she added. “We can’t stand for another firing.”
Assistant Chief Stephen Jenkins will assume the role of interim chief, Portsmouth spokesperson Peter Glagola said in an emailed statement.
The council vote last month to hire Chapman was a divided one, following the abrupt firing of her predecessor Jones weeks earlier.
Natalie Anderson, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com, 757-732-1133
