ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – St. Johns County marked a significant milestone in 2025 by recording zero criminal homicides, a notable accomplishment for a county with more than 300,000 people.
Sheriff Rob Hardwick, who spent 12 years working in homicide, described the success as “a little bit of luck” combined with “old-fashioned police work” and strong community involvement.
“It’s a buy-in from this community,” Hardwick said. “They’re not afraid to call the St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office, whether it’s just a suspicious incident or circumstances.”
News4JAX stopped by as people were going about their day to ask if they knew there were no homicides last year.
“I was unaware of that,” Samantha Solana said. “That’s a pretty good stat.”
Hardwick highlighted the role of technology and proactive policing.
“I don’t have a specific thing I can tie it to besides, again just policing from behind keyboards, technology-based policing, aggressively policing in patrol cars. Our deputy sheriffs wanting to be here, paying them well, good benefits, great equipment, phenomenal training, giving them the ability to make decisions on their own," Hardwick said.
Despite the zero homicides, challenges remain for Hardwick’s department.
“I always watched that domestic violence... I wish we could just lower that number,” Hardwick said.
The last homicide in the county was a double murder in November 2023. Hardwick described the investigation as “relentless work by our detectives,” leading to an arrest late last year.
In 2024, three overdose death cases were upgraded to homicide charges against the dealers who provided the drugs.
The county also had two officer-involved shootings in 2025 that were ruled justified, which are not included in homicide statistics.