CLAY COUNTY, Fla. -- In an effort to keep their residents safe this holiday season and also to combat crime well into 2009, two local sheriff's offices announced on Monday they would be working more as team.

Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler and Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford said they want criminals to know their agencies are launching an expanded crime-prevention initiative together. The two sheriff's said the Cops Without Borders program is an effort that will begin with the targeting of holiday season criminals but will have lasting effects into 2009 as well.

The main message to criminals at Monday afternoon's announcement was "Duval or Clay, We’ll Catch You Either Way."

A 14 x 48 billboard located on Blanding Boulevard just north of the Clay-Duval county line delivers that message to any would-be criminal targeting the area where Jacksonville and Clay County meet.

New billboards will be posted in two-month intervals, according to the sheriff's office officials. They said, the area continues to be a hotspot due to its many businesses, restaurants, apartment complexes and proximity to Interstate 295 -- all things appealing to criminals.

The billboard was paid for, not by taxpayer dollars, but by funds from convicted criminals through the Clay County court system. In essence, criminals are paying to help law enforcement keep other criminals out of our area.

But the Cop Without Borders involves much more than a series of signs on Blanding Boulevard. The program is designed to stop criminals from being able to hide. Homicide and armed robbery detectives now constantly share and compare information from Jacksonville and Clay County.

"We do not have that boundary that the criminals believe exists," Beseler said.

Beginning in 2009, Operation Safe Streets will come to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. A specialty unit of about a dozen handpicked Clay County deputies will work Clay County streets in direct communication with JSO’s Operation Safe Streets personnel.

Rutherford has already allowed key CCSO personnel to meet with his Operation Safe Streets coordinators. The focus of the newly formed unit will be aggressive patrol in search of violent felons. Deputies will work cross-border to locate and arrest armed robbers, home invaders, carjackers, violent gang members, burglars and anyone wanted on warrants for violent crimes.