New JSO hires held on questions of effectiveness, cost, and training

Jacksonville, FL — It’s far from being scrapped, but the Jacksonville Mayor’s plan to hire 100 more police officers is getting a lot of scrutiny from City Council members.

The Council's Finance Committee formally started their review of the Mayor's $1.27 billion budget plan Thursday, and the packed first day agenda included the budgets of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department. Mayor Lenny Curry has pitched new hires for both- JSO getting an additional 100 hires on their employee cap and JFRD getting 42.

While the Committee signed on to much of the JSO budget proposal, there were a few issues that they asked for more information on- including the new hires. While the employee cap would be raised by 100 under the Mayor’s plan, only 80 of those spots are funded this year, because Sheriff Mike Williams says that’s the amount they believe they can move through training in the time frame. The other 20 would be theoretically funded in the next budget plan.

For Williams, these hires are not an addition to the force- they’re part of digging out of the hole JSO has been in with staffing. He says bringing on more hires means getting more officers on the streets and connecting with the communities they serve.

“When we can build relationships down in the neighborhoods where it’s so important, we will see reductions in crime, we will see reductions in violence, because we have to work together,” he says.

But some on the Council are questioning whether the officers are getting to the right spots, and if that’s truly the best resource to turn to in order to cut back on crime.

Questions from Councilwoman Katrina Brown, Councilman Reggie Gaffney, and others raised focused on the policies around police shooting investigations, the penalties on officers who are found to have committed misconduct, the amount of training new hires are getting, and overall concerns they say their Districts are expressing about bringing more police to their streets. Williams says JSO goes through great lengths to root out foul play and are constantly reviewing training that takes place, in order to ensure any potential issues get addressed.

“I think we have to separate the staffing conversation from the misconduct conversation,” Williams says. “The bridge there is training.”

He told the Committee that there is no dilution in training or the standards new hires are held to, even if JSO is pushing a larger volume than prior years.

For Councilwoman Lori Boyer, the questions were fiscal. The 80 positions that are funded in the Mayor’s proposal are funded for six months. Training the new recruits takes seven months in the Academy and four months in the field, and Boyer wasn’t sure the amount that’s been funded stacks up.

Other questions included whether there are other resources- like crime prevention- that could be more effective if given the same funding. Scrutiny also placed on the structure of JSO- with concern that the department is too top heavy, and more resources may not translate to officers on the streets or in the right neighborhoods.

Williams laid out the parameters they use to determine where officers are assigned- largely based on call volume, population, and a few other factors- and told the Committee that they are in the process of a comprehensive review of the structure of the office. Despite that, the Committee decided to push off a vote specifically on the new hires, until later in the budget review process, when Williams could come back with more information.

Unlike JSO, new hires for JFRD faced little resistance. Some concern was raised about whether the hiring would offset the overtime JFRD currently works, with the Fire Chief Kurt Wilson admitting it may not have the desired effect by the time we reach the next budget. Councilman Danny Becton also asked for more details about the impact of the hiring not just on this budget, but subsequent ones as well.

Despite that, there was no last minute shuffle to separate the hires from the overall JFRD budget.

Of the 42 new hires, 18 would be funded for the entire year, 17 for three months, and 7 for two months. JFRD is also getting an infusion of 18,750 part time hours, which Wilson says will be used to boost lifeguard services. He says the nice weather this year led people to flock to the beaches outside of the normal window, and he didn’t have the resources for the two sites under his purview- Hanna Park and Huguenot Park. The additional part-time hours will allow an additional two and a half months of lifeguard services, although Wilson says the actual implementation is subject to the weather conditions and population demand.

Closely tied to the conversation of new JFRD hires is the Explorer Program, which got the praise of several Council members as a program used to funnel young adults in to a career with JFRD. The program fell under JFRD’s budget in the current budget, but in the budget proposal that’s being reviewed, it’s being held as a contingency under the Mayor’s reorganization of programs under the Jacksonville Journey and Jacksonville Children’s Commission. While there was no clear decision made on where the dollars should fall, a few Councilmen told the Mayor’s Chief Administrative Officer that the funding needed to be somewhere.

Another major change in JSO’s budget which was pushed off for a vote in the future, pending more information, is the outsourcing of health services for the Jail. The budget proposes a roughly $12 million increase for health services, as a result of moving to a private contract. Williams says they do not have the staff of doctors and nurses required to keep up with the mandated level of care, and getting to that level would mean an increase in cost.

“If we built it ourselves, you would still see a significant increase in that, but at least in this, we’re sharing liability with a vendor that does this for a living,” he says.

While Williams expects the several dozen employees that do currently fall under JSO would be absorbed by the outside contractor, Councilman Reggie Brown was concerned about the impact that would have on their pay and pension. Those questions were some of the driving forces to lead the Committee to request more information before officially signing off.

There was some good news Williams was able to bring forward from his department's perspective. He told the Committee that JSO has applied for a million dollar grant relating to body cameras, and he's confident they will get at least some, if not all of it. He also says ShotSpotter technology is now up and running, and by September 1st he anticipates having a team dedicated to responding to ShotSpotter calls. That team will work with members of the State Attorney's Office and ATF in using that technology and a few other new systems and software to specifically target gun crime. He further says they're communicating with the Center for Constitutional Policing in Pennsylvania, with Jacksonville a contender as a test for their new training system.

These budget hearings continue for a few weeks, and the package that’s built from that will then face a vote by the full City Council before the next fiscal year begins.