by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The Law Enforcement & Deterrence subcommittee of the Jacksonville Journey completed its task Thursday when the group formally approved six recommendations that will now be sent to the Journey’s Steering Committee.
Chaired by Paul Perez, former U.S. attorney for the middle district of Florida, the committee consisted primarily of law enforcement officers and attorneys practicing in various areas of law. The top recommendation — the addition of 101 patrol officers to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office as well as 124 new corrections officers and 38 emergency community officers — will surely please Sheriff John Rutherford. Over the past few months, Rutherford has been pushing hard for additional funding for additional officers. Those additional officers, Rutherford insists, will enable him to better patrol and police Jacksonville’s toughest and most dangerous neighborhoods.
The subcommittee’s five other recommendations include: increasing the post-incarceration supervision of convicted felons, focusing on “effective” prosecution of those frequently arrested, encouraging the expeditious disposition of pending cases, changing the bonding requirements of arrested individuals who do not pose an “ongoing threat to the community” and meet certain requirements and improving school safety.
“This is just our top six. It does not do away with the other recommendations,” said Perez. “We were asked by the Steering Committee to prioritize our recommendations by those that are immediately achievable. I think we’ve done that in these top six.”
The subcommittee was broken into four working groups that each focused on a different, but related, topic. Those topics included administration of justice, getting guns off the street, police presence and school safety.
Within each topic, the groups made several recommendations. Through the course of discussion — some of it testy, especially between Melissa Nelson of the State Attorney’s Office and Undersheriff Frank Mackesy over the topic of inmates awaiting trial and other related issues — many of those recommendations were either combined, amended or deleted.
One of the things former undersheriff Joe Henry suggested was asking JSO to prioritize where its off-duty officers worked. Henry said it makes sense, with limited funding, for JSO to better staff events such as rival high school football and basketball games as opposed to school dances. While JSO staffs those events, the Duval County School System pays for the officers.
“We are trying to get a dialogue going between the school system and JSO,” said Perez.
“At the end of the day it comes down to what they are willing to pay for,” said Mackesy. “Some rivalries require more security than others. History shows us that.”
Bishop John Howard chaired the Getting Guns off the Street working group. At the top of his group’s eight recommendations was better supervision of convicted felons. He also suggested those being prosecuted for non-violent crimes but with a violent crime history “be treated more harshly in the sentencing phase” because “they are potentially and obviously a threat to the community.”
Mackesy said adding parole officers and others who monitor convicted felons would “have a positive impact on the JSO budget and a negative impact on the State budget” because those law enforcement officials are funded through the State.
“The State farms out lower level supervision to organizations like the Salvation Army,” he said, adding reducing the inmate population would help the JSO budget dramatically. “For every person you reduce in jail, you save $60 a day.”
Attorney Lanny Russell led the group that looked into the current police presence factor. The group agreed with Rutherford’s claim that he needs another 101 patrol officers.
“The funding needs to be worked out between the sheriff and the mayor,” said Russell, adding his group suggested implementing those officers over a five-year period. “Jacksonville does not have now the appropriate number of sworn officers on the street.”