JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fighting crime is taking center stage for Jacksonville's newly elected sheriff and mayor.
A budget plan submitted by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office calls for the city to fund and hire 40 new police officers and 40 community service officers.
Outgoing Sheriff John Rutherford made the request in April.
DOCUMENT: Budget request breakdown for new officers |
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It calls for over $7.4 million to be spent on the new hires, which the sheriff has repeatedly said will help reduce the recent wave of crime in the city. As for the community service officers, they would be used to free up regular officers by taking care of traffic details and other nonviolent situations.
Sheriff-elect Mike Williams concurred with Rutherford's assessment and issued a statement Thursday about the budget:
"I definitely stand by the need for officers and the restoration of the CSO program, as presented in our preliminary budget documents. I am keenly aware of the realities of the economy and the fact that this will be a tight budget year, and I am working closely with Mayor–elect (Lenny) Curry to achieve any needed resources for the JSO that are possible."
A spokesman for Curry said the new administration supports the need for more officers. Right now, Curry's transitions team is working on a budget that will be presented to City Council in July.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said the request for additional officers is good, but might not be enough.
"You are still short maybe 200 officers from the cap. It is sort of a drop in the bucket, but anytime you are adding police officers that is a good thing," Smith said. "Now the crucial part are the community service officers. They are a great force multiplier. Those community service officers can free up the sworn officers in handling minor calls."
Among other items requested for police include new cars, computers and weapons for the new officers.
Smith said that new equipment is essential.
"You are going to have to replace the cars because the mileage is increasing on these cars. When I left the Sheriff's Office in August, I had the second-highest mileage. I had a 190,000 miles on my car," Smith said. "You can only push them so far before you replace them, and they really need to replace them right now."
As part of the transition, team meetings are underway on how to make Jacksonville safer. A group made up of community leaders will issue a report at the end of the month to Curry on how to work better with the Sheriff's Office to deal with crime in Jacksonville.