What do the 5 sheriff candidates have to say about Jacksonville's homicide rate?
Leading up to city's unofficial 100th homicide, the five candidates to be Jacksonville's next sheriff have touched on the ongoing violence as they head into Tuesday's election.
All are running to replace former Sheriff Mike Williams, who resigned last month after it was learned he had lived for more than a year in Nassau County, which violates city charter. The winner would finish the remainder of Williams' term.
During recent candidate forums each provided responses, summarized below in alphabetical order.
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Lakesha Burton
Retired Sheriff's Office Chief Lakesha Burton said she is not surprised at the high number already, saying the Sheriff's Office leadership has been "quiet." She said a sheriff should get "out in the community and make some noise about it.
"We have become numb to the violence in this city," Burton said. "... The criminals in this city will know their time is up and get the community involved."
Wayne Clark
Retired airport and schools police chief Wayne Clark said the Sheriff's Office appears to be reacting to the killings instead of finding ways to prevent them. Some are due to gangs, what he called "retaliatory murders."
"We have got to identify the people who are out doing this, be proactive and try to remove those people from the streets to prevent some of those murders," Clark said. "... The street is always talking; you just have to be out there to hear what it is saying and redeploy people to prevent that."
Tony Cummings
Retired Officer Tony Cummings called the homicide rate "sad and tragic," saying the Sheriff's Office will never "wrap its arms around" the problem until police regain the public's trust.
"We have been the murder capital of Florida since 2012, so this has not just happened," he said. "... You have to define the problem correctly."
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Ken Jefferson
Calling the high death rate "very unfortunate," retired Officer Ken Jefferson said the city has been there before. And he believed on Aug. 9 that "before the summer is over, we are going to be over 100 and it's got to change."
"We have to do something different, change the way we are doing things," Jefferson said. "When you hear of a 16-year-old boy being shot, it is slowly becoming the norm now in Jacksonville. We all have to work together. ... If there is no relationship, you will have crime unsolved and crime rampant like we have now."
T.K. Waters
One death is too much, said retired Sheriff's Office Chief T.K. Waters, whose job duties included overseeing the homicide division prior to his July retirement.
"We are going in the right direction even though it may not feel like it," he said. "Last year we had 130 homicides total. This year we are slightly above that and we will keep driving and pressing to make sure we touch the right people and do our very best to get this problem under control. We will not stop working on it."
dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville sheriff candidates address city's homicide problem
