by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville City Council is currently considering two ordinances that would provide the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office do two very different things. One ordinance would help financially support a brand new community relations initiative. The other would assist JSO in determining the criminal extent of someone being booked into the Duval County jail.
With $75,000 from the United States Department of Justice, JSO — through its COPS program — will establish a “Creating a Culture of Integrity” initiative designed to enhance communications between the community and JSO in an effort to improve accountability. The funding is a one-time grant that will cover contractual services, operational supplies and office equipment.
The other ordinance would also appropriate $112,500 in federal funds for a live scan fingerprint system which will allow JSO to immediately send fingerprints to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement headquarters in Tallahassee. Council will kick in another $37,500 for the system that will require three machines and accompanying software.
Assistant Chief of Support Services Tara Wildes said the new system is actually an upgrade of a system JSO used about two years ago. If approved, JSO will upgrade from the Live Scan 2000 to the Live Scan 3000, enabling officers processing those arrested to determine quickly if the person is wanted in other parts of the state. The Live Scan 2000, Wildes said, simply can’t keep up with the volume of people arrested statewide and is almost useless today.
“If they are in the system, we will know if they are wanted somewhere else in about 30 minutes,” said Wildes. “Right now, we send their fingerprint card to FDLE and it can take up to a week to find out of they are wanted.”
Currently, most of Florida is already using the system. Wildes said with the exception of Dade and Broward counties, the larger counties such as Duval and Hillsborough are still not in the on-line system. That, said Wildes, is due mainly to high populations and arrest rates and lack of proper equipment.
Wildes expects to get the equipment in February and immediately start training personnel.
“My goal is by August to be doing at least 80 percent of our submissions electronically, maybe more,” said Wildes, adding JSO arrests, on average 120-150 people per day. Of those arrests, approximately 10 percent prove to have warrants in other Florida counties. The new system will expedite the extradition process. “It will save us time in processing and we won’t be letting people go who shouldn’t go. We’ll be able to process their charges quicker.”