by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“Our situation is not good.”
That was how Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford began his remarks at Monday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville.
“We lead the state in murders per capita and 2007 was the worst year in Jacksonville history for traffic fatalities,” he said.
The property tax amendment approved by voters last month couldn’t have come at a worse time because, said Rutherford, “We are woefully short in some resources. The recent audit of the department determined we need 162 more police officers. Some people have suggested we should move officers from one area to another, but I can tell you our officers are well-deployed and they can’t be moved.”
Three things have to be in place in order to control crime and the JSO is just one piece of the criminal justice system, Rutherford told the group. He said there must be an adequate police presence on the street, there must be aggressive prosecution of criminals and the community has to support the effort.
“Whenever I speak to community organizations and neighborhood associations, I tell people they have only the amount of crime in their community that they are willing to tolerate,” said Rutherford.
He pointed to the success of “Operation Safe Streets” in 2006 as an example of the effectiveness of police presence in high-crime areas. Rutherford said Jacksonville’s murder rate had increased 57 percent the past seven years, but it dropped 38 percent in the last half of 2006 because of the initiative.
“We hired 70 new officers and we decided we weren’t going to go after the bad guys,” he said. “We first went out to the good people in the communities. We knocked on 31,000 doors. Tips went up 200 percent and our gun bounty program led to almost 200 arrests.”
Rutherford also said the jail continues to be overcrowded and is currently housing 125 suspects awaiting murder trials alone. The cost of medical care for inmates has increased from $6 million per year to more than $10 million.
“When the property tax amendment passed, I was asked if I would reduce the number of additional officers I was asking for. Absolutely not,” he said. “The need to protect this community hasn’t changed one iota. If we’re going to keep this community safe, it will take more police officers.”
He cited statistics that Jacksonville has 1.95 officers per 1,000 residents, while the state average is 2.27 per thousand.
Rutherford said areas known for high levels of drug-related activity must be a priority, since murder victims live in all areas of the city, “but they die in drug areas. Most of our violent crime is drug-related. Fifty-five percent of the murder victims die in high drug arrest areas and 73 percent of the victims of violent crime know their assailants.
“As long as I’m sheriff, we’ll never stop going into street-level drug dealing areas,” he continued. “The same people who are dealing drugs are burglarizing homes and businesses.”
He said he is optimistic that “The Jacksonville Journey: Take a Step” will be effective in reducing crime in the community, but it won’t be an overnight solution.
“We cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” he said. “We’re dealing with a generation of young people who are willing to use an AK-47 on you. We have to address the next generation. The Jacksonville Journey can bring social services together to meet the needs of our youngest generation and head off the problem.”
Rutherford also said the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office needs a total of $21 million for personnel: $13 million to hire more police officers, $6 million for more corrections officers and $2 million for civilian employees and “It’s up to the community to decide how it will be funded.
“Jacksonville has some priorities to set, particularly in view of Amendment 1, but the cost of doing nothing will be higher,” he said.