Adult club owners would pay to have officers on site

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office does not allow off-duty officers at clubs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The day after a 21-year-old man was shot and killed early inside Mascara's Gentleman's Club near the intersection of Southside and Beach boulevards, the manager of another strip club says they would pay to keep law enforcement officers on site to help avoid trouble.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Brandon Green was shot at 4:20 a.m. Sunday. At the scene, homicide detectives said they believe the victim was the intended target and there were lots of witnesses.

This is not the first deadly shooting at Mascara's. A 29-year-old man was killed inside Mascara's during a dispute between eight to 10 people about 4 a.m. on Oct. 6, 2012.

Several shots were fired outside the same adult club in May of this year, but the police said no one was injured in that incident.

Channel 4 was told a security guard was checking for weapons at the entrance of Mascara's, but that didn't top Sunday morning's deadly shooting.

No one at Mascara's was willing to talk on Monday, but the manager of the Silver Foxx, a nightclub on Jacksonville's Westside, said changes in security need to be made in and around these clubs immediately.

"There's a mother sitting there mourning right now because her child was murdered," he said Monday.

The manager, who does not want his name used, said he would rather pay off-duty officers than private security guards "because people show a different level of respect if they see at JSO officer at the club."

Lauri-Ellen Smith, special assistant to Sheriff John Rutherford, said the rule against officers working at nightclubs has existed "as long as anyone here can remember."

"In nightclubs that serve alcohol, officers can only work the parking lot and are not allowed to work interior security unless there is a call for service requiring police assistance inside the club," Smith said.

Sworn officers also are prohibited from working at businesses where pornographic materials are sold or provide sexually based entertainment.

The Silver Foxx manager he tried getting around the rule by setting up a food truck in his parking lot and hiring an officer to provide security for the truck.

"I guess JSO secondary employment got wind of it -- that they were at the gentleman's club -- so they stopped it," he said.

Channel 4's crime and safety analyst Ken Jefferson -- a longtime employee of the Sheriff's Office -- agrees that these clubs are not a place where sworn officers should work

"There's things that go on here that are indecent and borderline against the law, so you don't want to put an officer in a situation where not only does he provide security, but he has to inspect the place to make sure no unsavory things are going on," Jefferson said.

Anyone who has any information about the killing is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.