JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Candidates running for offices in Duval County gathered Saturday night to meet with voters in a forum called "The Stump."
All the candidates said it was an important event because it gave them a chance to meet and talk to voters face-to-face.
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News4Jax spoke to the candidates who are running for sheriff at the event. The big issue was crime.
Tony Cummings
"As a sheriff candidate I have a robust platform to beat back crime in Duval County. It includes putting the public at the table via civilian review and accountability panels. I also want to increase the community affairs division to conduct more positive outreach operations to hardest hit areas of Jacksonville. We also need to increase civil citations. Right now our county issues 33 percent issuance. I want to get that to 70-75 percent consistent with major metropolitan cities throughout state of Florida."
"I want to reorganize manpower of JSO to be a wise steward of the $398 million that taxpayers are spending. The sheriff has responsibility to the public to make sure money is spent wisely. I'll do that as your sheriff. Finally I want to increase minority hiring in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office to make the office more reflective of community it serves."
Jay Farhat
"I'm only candidate that's still employed with JSO as a supervisor. A majority of other candidates retired. I'm only one with business background. Only one who worked in State Attorney's office for 10 years. Big gap between making arrest and successful prosecution. Those are the types differences you want to get out to voters and then explain what you want to do to make agency better. There's always room to improve. We need to improve the agency."
Jimmy Holderfield 
"We're going to attack crime from several different approaches. No. 1 we're going to reorganize the agency putting front line officers out on the street where they need to be. We had been building relationships with the faith-based community, civic organizations to engage and energize our youth in the community. If we don't do that they're going to engage with criminal element. So what we need to do is get them at a young age. Make sure we're as tough as we possibly can be on drugs. I think you'll see Jacksonville become one of the safest cities in America, not the murder capital of Florida."
Lonnie McDonald
"We're at the crossroads of being a big city with big city crime or a city that makes a difference. I bring the experience for it. With going overseas to Afghanistan using that experience that turns into wisdom and the experiences I've had. It's great to answer these questions, hear people's concerns and use that to gain public trust what we can do."
"It's critical for voters to learn who the candidates are. There's so many issues on the table. It's important to understand the background of each candidate not only with JSO but with their experience in law enforcement and experience outside JSO especially global experience. We're experiencing global issues in Jacksonville now. ISIS was just arrested here last week. These issues are very real to our city . We have to look to the voter to understand who's going to be the best for this city."
McDonald also said he wants to train and deploy the officers on the streets that are the most effective to reduce crime rates. He also wants to build partnerships with the faith based and business communities.
Mike Williams
"We've got some clear priorities in our campaign No.1 violent crime. No. 2 is continue to build strength and relationships in community and be transparent in budget process and be very lean and efficient. We get to share that message with people tonight it's a coming off pretty well."
Candidates Ken Jefferson and Rob Schoonover did not attend Saturday night's event.
Early voting begins March 9 in Duval County. For a list of early voting locations click here.
News4Jax will host debates of the candidates for mayor on March 18 and those running for sheriff on March 19. But will be shown on Channel 4 and all platforms of News4Jax at 8 p.m., then archived for viewing anytime up to the March 24 election.