Jacksonville Sheriff's race 2015

[tufsu1]

Corrine Brown has announced her support of Ken Jefferson for Sheriff. 

for better or worse, that should minimize the candidacy of Tony Cummings

[mtraininjax]

The choices for the Sheriff's race are certainly encouraging and with many great candidates it will be an exciting race. I just saw a Jay Farhat commercial today, March 1. So get ready to get blasted with weeks of info from all canididates.

[Jrolive]

first off i want to say hello!! I've been troling around the site for about a year or so now ( i know i should have joined sooner ) but i'm not sure what qualifications are even right for the jso with it being a dual role of politico and police chief. the only city elections ive voted in here in jax was the last and the whole process confused me 

[exnewsman]

One thing I noticed in reading the bios... only Mike Williams mentioned any real budget experience. Considering how much of the job is managing a force of 3200 officers and a multi-million dollar budget, I was hoping for more. During Rutherford's tenure is seemed to always be about more, more, more. I think a better solution would have been how much more can I get with what I have. Better police work doesn't always come from having more cops. Better police work comes from making sure the officers you have are thinking out-of-the-box and finding new an d better ways to manage our crimes problems. Five great officers who get involved with their community and listen to the people they serve and gain the trust of those same people will always trump seven average/uninspired officers who drive around the neighborhood in their cars all day.
That is the kind of leadership I would like to see from my sheriff.

[Jax native]

One thing I noticed in reading the bios... only Mike Williams mentioned any real budget experience. Considering how much of the job is managing a force of 3200 officers and a multi-million dollar budget, I was hoping for more. During Rutherford's tenure is seemed to always be about more, more, more. I think a better solution would have been how much more can I get with what I have. Better police work doesn't always come from having more cops. Better police work comes from making sure the officers you have are thinking out-of-the-box and finding new an d better ways to manage our crimes problems. Five great officers who get involved with their community and listen to the people they serve and gain the trust of those same people will always trump seven average/uninspired officers who drive around the neighborhood in their cars all day.
That is the kind of leadership I would like to see from my sheriff.

Agree, and you stated it more articulate than I could.   Although it has been years and not much talk, but Sheriff rutherford started some very high paying positions in his office w/ out law enforcement experience.  Positions never needed in the past and certainly not at the pay rate.  i personally feel it's childish and unprofessional for the Sheriff to respond to EVERY piece of crime news w/ " We lost 137 officers".  As if that is the only reason JSO is under performing. 

[Edward]

Has anyone heard anything about the Clay County Sheriff's race in 2016? Candidates are already registered and running hard. An officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (and a 20+ year resident of Clay) is one of the candidates. Sheriff's races are always interesting. Apparently current Clay Sheriff Rick Beseler will not run in 2016. If he did, he would be nearly impossible to defeat. But with him out it is going to be a real interesting race too.

[sheclown]

[coredumped]

sheclown, thanks for the heads up on this. Does anyone know if it will be televised? Or if there WILL be a sheriff debate on TV?

[Scarlettjax]

On the Clay county race, take a good look at candidate Darryl Daniels.  Here's his website: http://danielsforsheriff.com/

A good man with good experience to work with what Clay has to offer.  Wide range of jobs held at JSO, FBI academy, former military - all important qualifications.  Plus, he has been involved in the community in Clay county for years and is the current chair of the Leadership Clay class.

[Edward]

Thanks Scarlett. I found out today incumbent Beseler has not made a final decision (supposedly), and if does decide not to run, there will be a strong candidate coming out of the CCSO office.
And - they're off! One thing about local politics. Never a dull moment.

[I-10east]

I think that the popular mantra "More police always equals less crime" is a canard for the most part. Bad people are gonna do what bad people want to do, and the police cannot be everywhere. There are some rare exceptions like NYC, which has uber resources within an extreme urban landscape; NYC has very tough gun laws, and unfortunately the controversial 'stop and frisk' factors in also. The only thing that I've noticed from the JSO police cuts is that traffic speed traps are now very rare, which I can't say is a bad thing; They are still rolling undercover though.    

[mtraininjax]

Agree, and you stated it more articulate than I could.   Although it has been years and not much talk, but Sheriff rutherford started some very high paying positions in his office w/ out law enforcement experience.  Positions never needed in the past and certainly not at the pay rate.  i personally feel it's childish and unprofessional for the Sheriff to respond to EVERY piece of crime news w/ " We lost 137 officers".  As if that is the only reason JSO is under performing.

When Rutherford started he never had the access to military equipment or joint FBI, Marshals, as well as other federal resources, that he has now. So what Rutherford has done, with a shrinking budget has been short of amazing. You get less and less each year from the mayor and you know that most 70-80% of the crime is drug related, you start shifting resources to take care of the items that are most concerning. What has been most concerning is what  Rutherford could have done with the extra resources back on the street.

There are also newer white collar crimes and expansion of criminal activity over what he found when he started. The new Sheriff is going to inherit a better run office than what Rutherford inherited. Morale is low because of the pension issues and no pay increases, which point back to the mayor. I doubt Brown gets any support from any police or fire this spring.

[coredumped]

When Rutherford started he never had the access to military equipment or joint FBI, Marshals, as well as other federal resources, that he has now.

NO police department should EVER have access to military equipment against it's citizens. Military items are used in war and should not be used against fellow citizens.

Then and now:

Have any candidates spoken about red light cameras?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

You get less and less each year from the mayor and you know that most 70-80% of the crime is drug related, you start shifting resources to take care of the items that are most concerning.

Define drug related crime?  Those percentages may be true, but the kid that gets pulled over for rolling through a stopsign on a Sunday evening with a joint in his cigarette pack still gets chalked up as a 'drug related crime'.   

Now, instead of ending with a traffic ticket, this routine stop has occupied probably 2-4 officers for an hour or two, however many detention people to run him through the system, occupies a cell for at least a day, requires a judge the next morning, etc...    Because he didn't come to a complete stop.

That's just for the arrest.  After this comes the a prosecutor, public defender, judge and all the clerks required to find this person innocent or guilty which will tie up the court system until his case is resolved. 

After he pleads no contest to having pot, the court tosses the original traffic ticket (don't want any further record of that to link the two), fines him the $300+ in just court costs and sentences him to time served and 6 months probation, for rolling through a stop sign.

Now we tie up another system, the Salvation Army and their merry band of POs (yet another group that needs a substantial budget to operate) and they get to keep track of this kid for the next 6 months, for rolling through a stop sign.

So don't feed me the company line of 'drug related crime' without something relevant.


Edit:

And Sheriff Rutherford needs MORE cops to crack down on the crime?  Right.  Stop basing how good a job he does by the amount of criminals he locks up and then we can have an honest discussion regarding what is needed to fund his department.

[coredumped]

Edit:

And Sheriff Rutherford needs MORE cops to crack down on the crime?  Right.  Stop basing how good a job he does by the amount of criminals he locks up and then we can have an honest discussion regarding what is needed to fund his department.

Westsider gets it, spot on!

And now that we have the unconstitutional red light cameras, can we free up some traffic cops to work on bigger things, like unsolved homicides?
I for one will be very happy when Rutherford is gone, he's done no good for this city. He sure can ask for money though!