AHOSKIE — The Ahoskie Town Council approved a Public Safety Plan that seeks to focus extensively on mentorship programs, community policing initiatives, and efforts to curb youth and gun violence.

In the wake of a shooting at Ahoskie Tobacco House on November 9 that injured two people and another incident on Main Street on November 14 involving a juvenile victim, Mayor Weyling White opened the meeting by emphasizing the urgency of recent crime trends

“Today is our very special meeting as we have two very important things on our agenda item today. We want to start with our Ahoskie Public Safety Plan,” White said during a special meeting Tuesday. Citing recent “shootings and youth violence,” he said the town aimed “to highlight some key elements of this plan, ways that we are working to provide community engagement, violence prevention as well as some other initiatives that we feel can curb gun violence here in our community.”

Mentorship and Family Support Efforts Introduced

Mayor White said mentorship opportunities had repeatedly been raised by residents. “We’ve talked to a lot of different people and a lot of people say one thing that we need for our youth is we need mentorships, we need parenting skills, we need things of that nature working with different families,” he said.

Council then heard from Vernon Wooten, founder and executive director of Fatherhood Matters Inc., who joined virtually. Wooten said his group hopes “to now start to come down to Ahoskie, North Carolina and partner with you, and bring some of the strategies that we use that work for us here in New York City to your area with the idea of addressing, from what I’m hearing, the more recent violence, but just the general culture in the community.”

Wooten explained that Fatherhood Matters provides “parenting classes for fathers… domestic violence classes for fathers… and anger management for fathers,” along with supervised visitation, court advocacy, and wraparound services. He stressed the importance of involving entire families and communities: “We want to work on the co-parent relationship, we want to work on the culture in the family, and then we want to work on the culture in the community.”

The organization hopes to begin offering virtual programs immediately. “We want to be able to offer… these fathers parenting classes… anger management classes… and domestic violence or batterer’s accountability classes,” he said.

Town officials seemed supportive but emphasized the need to review details before taking action. 

Councilman discussions indicated early support. Council member David Hunt said he was “wholeheartedly in support of it… the fact that a organization… is willing to come here and help us for free… speaks value.”

At the close of his presentation, Wooten said, “I appreciate it. I look forward to working with you.”

Police Chief Presents COP SPOT Initiative

The second portion of the meeting focused on eight elements of the Public Safety Plan, including community partnerships, the youth curfew, and a series of police initiatives. Police Chief Michele Garrett presented the first major component, known as the COP SPOT program.

Garrett said the plan was the product of prayer and reflection. “Basically this is a, a program that I’m presenting… and it’s called COP SPOT,” she said. The acronym stands for “courtesy… officer… programs,” and SPOT represents “serving, protecting our town.”

She said the program assigns officers to apartment complexes and businesses. “An officer present in marked patrol car discourage, uh, theft, break-ins, vandalism, drug activity, and gang presence,” Garrett explained.

She added that the approach builds trust: “A consistent police president creates a safer, more stable environment and gives residents a familiar face to report crimes to.”

For businesses, Garrett said the benefits include “professional protection” and “quick action on disturbances.”

Garrett highlighted the department’s extensive outreach — from sports coaching to school programs, youth events, senior programs, emergency response, overdose reversals, homelessness support, and multi-agency initiatives. “We want the citizens as well as business owners to feel protected, feel like they’re safe, and we want them to know that we are there to protect, to serve them, and make life easier for everybody,” she said.

Garrett emphasized the dedication of her officers: “We put our heart into what we are doing. We have a passion for this. If not, we wouldn’t be doing this.”

Town Manager John Moses praised the COP SPOT concept.

“People walk into my office and talk to me about the fact that they would love to have officers in their business… And I find it amazing that Chief Garrett walked in and brought COP SPOT completely out of her own mind because she does this daily, she spends time with our citizens, with our businesses, with these apartments. I’ll be very honest with — I got very, very excited when I saw this. To me, this is an answer for what people are asking for. Full support on it. I think it’s absolutely fabulous, and I think the citizens are gonna love it.”

Youth Curfew Highlighted

Officials also reiterated the council’s recent action to adopt a 10 p.m. youth curfew — see our previous story. “What this does is it prioritizes safety and prevention, and it also helps us to partner with the parents to make sure their kids are in the homes, they’re off the streets, and they’re somewhere safe,” a staff member noted.

The council plans to review additional details about partnership opportunities, including the mentorship proposal, before taking action at a later meeting.

Town officials closed the meeting by reaffirming their commitment to public safety and community partnerships as central strategies to counter recent violence.