JSO Hosts Town Hall: Agency unveils Realignment Project, new programs
Sheriff T.K. Waters welcomed the community to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) Town Hall Meeting at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center on Wednesday, July 19, where he shared several announcements and discussed new JSO additions.
Zoned Out
During his address, Waters unveiled his Realignment Project, which replaced JSO’s former Zones of Response with Police Service Districts. These new districts redraw the boundaries of the former zones, creating new borders for each of the six new districts for Jacksonville.
Specific to The Resident News readership, the newly minted District 1 pulls San Marco from its former Patrol Zone 3 (where it was grouped with Southside and Mandarin) and combines it with the areas of the old Patrol Zone 1, including Downtown, Eastside and Springfield. Brooklyn joins it as well. Riverside, now within the boundaries of District 5, was separated from Ortega, Avondale and Westside, which had all been grouped together in the former Patrol Zone 4.
The areas within the new districts are as follows:
District 1:
Brooklyn, Downtown, Eastside, San Marco, Springfield
District 2:
Arlington, Intracoastal West
District 3:
Mandarin, Southside
District 4:
Avondale, Ortega, Westside
District 5:
Baldwin, New Town, Northwest, Riverside
District 6:
Northside, San Mateo, Oceanway
Waters stated that while the previous zones were based on “arbitrary geographical markers,” the creation of these new lines were deliberate, data-driven decisions. Following the Town Hall, Waters explained the data considered for the new district areas was based on calls for service.
“We looked at the calls for service, where they’re happening, how many there were over a three-year period of time, and we looked at all of that, and we divided it up because they stayed pretty consistent throughout the year,” he said. “Some places had 153,000 calls for service, some places had 60,000 calls for service. This place was always officers being held over on overtime because they’re overworked, this side doesn’t. So now we spread that out. But we based on it calls for service and the data that provided us.”
These new districts went into effect on Saturday, July 29.
216: The Magic Number
Waters stated the data used in his Realignment Plan also helped provide a clear picture of how many police officers are needed to “adequately” serve the city and said an additional 216 officers are needed on the force.
Just two days before the JSO Town Hall, during her presentation of the proposed 2023-2024 budget, Mayor Donna Deegan announced $7.8 million would be allocated to JSO, providing for 40 additional police officers and 18 new, non-uniformed positions with the sheriff’s office.
Following the Town Hall, Waters stated that, ideally, he’d like to see 10 officers in each squad. Current staffing numbers have squads populated with seven or eight, he explained, but he hopes to continue to work with the city to “make a slow advance and build our force” each year.
“I believe Mayor Deegan is open to listening to that; I believe the City Council’s open to listening to that,” he said. “So, we’re gonna ask and we’ll see what happens. But I think it’s very important.”.
ConnectDuval
Later during the Town Hall, JSO Director of Investigations and Homeland Security Mark Romano unveiled ConnectDuval, a voluntary program allowing citizens to register their exterior security cameras with JSO.
A fact sheet about the new program states it was developed to “create stronger public-private collaborations and enable businesses and community members to work more closely with law enforcement.”
If or when a crime incident occurs, investigators will notify registered ConnectDuval participants in the area to alert them of the incident “and request access to recorded footage,” Romano said.
Romano said this new program has many benefits, including increasing public participation in community safety and security, providing investigators a faster method of collecting evidence previously unavailable to them and “strengthening the justice system.”
He also said the ConnectDuval was created with “layers of privacy protection.”
“The aim of this initiative is not to create a surveillance state,” he said. “Rather this program empowers citizens to contribute actively to the safety of their community using surveillance footage that’s already been gathered.”
As of Thursday, July 20, 201 cameras have already been registered with ConnectDuval.
Information regarding ConnectDuval, including registration, can be found at www.connectduval.org.
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