from Staff
At 55 years of age, and 33 years after beginning his law enforcement career, Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford has had to learn a new role in his job of top cop. He’s had to become a politician.
“I’m having to spend much more time in the politics of crime than in the fighting of crime,” said Rutherford. “If being a sheriff isn’t a true calling for someone, I don’t think you can do it.”
Rutherford has had to exercise his lobbying muscles lately, as he’s asked for $21 million to add more than 400 officers to help fight Jacksonville’s escalating violent crime problem, including being the reigning leader of murder per capita in the state of Florida.
The City Council has re-established $3 million in funding for Operation Safe Streets, which in 2006 helped reduce Jacksonville’s murder rate 38 percent with the help of 70 more officers on the streets. Rutherford said he’s expecting the same kind of impact this time around, although he knows it’s only a stop gap until the ultimate needs of his department are met.
“I’ll probably be standing up in opposition of a lot of powerful people...but if you minimize the response, you’re going to minimize the impact,” he said. “I honestly believe the future of our city is at stake here.”
In the first of a two-part discussion with Rutherford, the Daily Record presents the sheriff’s views on the challenges his department faces (including crime issues Downtown), what the possible solutions are and why it will take more than just putting officers on the streets. In Thursday’s Daily Record, Rutherford will discuss other issues, including seeking re-election and his feelings on what a president can do for crime.
When did the funding problems in JSO start?
“What got us through the first few years was the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program. But, in my first year (2003-04), 40 to 60 new positions hit my budget. That’s when the federal money ran out.
“The State (of Florida) continued to push unfunded mandates. I pay for all the courthouse security. One reason it’s so frustrating is because you have the governor (Charlie Crist) sitting there saying ‘cut taxes.’ Part of my budget’s $100 million growth is out at the port. In 2003, that security was funded in part by Homeland Security. But, the port is going to double in size in the next few years.”
Before asking for more funds, how have you made sure your department is as efficient as possible?
“The last thing I want to do is ask for a bunch of officers to put out on the street at the expense of the taxpayers. So before I did that, I wanted to do (some) things.
“We are a 300-million-dollar business. We need to run it like a business. We need to be sure we are running our business processes lean. We joined the Jacksonville Lean Consortium. It was founded by the First Coast Manufacturers (Association), and even though we’re not turning out widgets, we’re turning out public safety. There’s still a lot of applications we can use with this lean concept.
“We were (also) going to bring in an external and nationally recognized firm to look at the DNA of our agency and tell us what we need to keep this community safe based on the matrices they use. What they came in with was that we need 21 officers in patrol, 48 in the detective division and 14 in personnel and professional standards.”
But you are asking the city to fund 164 patrol officers. Why the discrepancy?
“Here’s where I disagree with the auditor. The auditor says you should have a 40 to 50 percent pro-activity time, which is the time officers have (during their shift) to respond to emergency calls. It’s also time to get out of the car and give out a pamphlet and fight the ‘don’t snitch’ attitude and things like that.
“Cities across the country should have a minimum of 40 to 50 percent pro-activity. We’re at 35 percent now, and they recommended we got to 40 percent. I’m like, ‘No.’ That is unacceptable. I don’t care what the costs are, I want to find the need and meet that.
“To go from 35 percent to 45 percent, we have to hire the 21 officers plus 69 more plus 11 supervisors. And in traffic enforcement, we need 56 more officers and seven supervisors.”
Let’s say you get the funding and the officers, what impact in crime could people expect?
“I think Operation Safe Streets (in 2006) gives us a good indication of where we’d be. We saw a dramatic decrease in crime, and we only got into five of the 12 identified neighborhoods. We projected 138 murders in 2006, when we started OSS. We wound up with 110. I want officers because I have programs I can put them into that I know will work.”
What do the politicians and City officials say when you tell them what you need?
“They say we’ve got to find a way to fund it. It’s always funding. And it’s going to be more difficult to fund it if our tax base continues to move out of Duval County.
“It’s exactly what happened in Detroit. The people left the inner core of that city. I don’t want Jacksonville to be the cheapest city in the state. I want it to be the safest city in the state.
“But, it’s up to the community to decide the funding. It’s not up to the sheriff.”
But isn’t there an issue with the State Attorney’s Office, which is also hurting for funding and will have a hard time prosecuting all the arrests these new officers would potentially make?
“Yes. And the number of prosecutors I think can change the focus. Currently, the State Attorney’s Office is so short personnel, they are more in the business of processing bad guys instead of prosecuting bad guys. They (criminals) don’t fear the system. They don’t fear going to jail.
“They fear the feds. They know they are going to prosecute the heck out of them, and they know when they send you to prison, they send you to Leavenworth (Federal Prison in Kansas). We need to get back to where they fear the state system.”
So what does the State Attorney need, and how can the sheriff help?
“I have told the State Attorney and Chief Judge, let’s pack up and go to Tallahassee and bring back some money. Neither one of them will take me up on my offer.”
One group of offenders that’s hard to prosecute is vagrants. Many Downtown merchants complain that the area isn’t safe for them or their customers. What’s your response to that perception in Downtown?
“We need to differentiate between the homeless and the street people. They are not the same. The homeless are people that are down on their luck. The street people — if you gave them a job at the Daily Record, they would not take it. We should treat them differently, but we treat them the same.
“We need to use the Sulzbacher Center and others like that to help those in a bad moment in their lives. We need to build another facility near the Duval County/Baker County line that provides services the street people need. We need more suits walking down the street than homeless.”