Jacksonville Sheriff's Office joins move to use private security cameras in crime fighting

David Bauerlein, Florida Times-Union
Updated ·7 min read
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From Ring video doorbells to more elaborate monitoring systems, security cameras have spread as a way for homeowners and businesses to add some level of safety to their premises.

The video captured by those cameras also can be a treasure trove of information when police are investigating crimes.

At a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office town hall that attracted hundreds of people Wednesday to the Prime Osborn Convention Center, Sheriff T.K. Waters announced the agency is launching ConnectDuval, a program that lets owners of security cameras voluntarily register them with the Sheriff's Office so its officers can quickly know who to contact about obtaining video footage that helps solve crimes.

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The program also gives security camera owners an option of letting the Sheriff's Office get the video feed directly in real-time, a partnership that has faced criticism that it creates a "Big Brother" surveillance network when the government is receiving such video information.

Despite those concerns, the technology has continued to gain interest from law enforcement agencies. Clay County and St. Johns County already use that approach for hundreds of cameras in partnership with Fusus, a company that has been working to bring its technology to local governments across the country.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters delivers his town hall address Wednesday at the Prime Osborn Convention Center. Waters and other staff talked about their vision of how the Sheriff’s Office can build better partnerships with the public in order to fight crime.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters delivers his town hall address Wednesday at the Prime Osborn Convention Center. Waters and other staff talked about their vision of how the Sheriff’s Office can build better partnerships with the public in order to fight crime.

Sheriff's Office leaders said at the town hall the program is voluntary with "layers of privacy protection."

"The aim of this initiative is not to create a surveillance state, but this program empowers citizens to contribute actively to the safety of their community using surveillance footage that's already been gathered," Mark Romano, Sheriff's Office director of investigations and homeland security, said in his presentation on how ConnectDuval will work.

He said with the police and public "working together, we can strike a balance between privacy and security" by ensuring the information is used "solely for the purpose of public safety."

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Waters also announced that his agency has done a wholesale revamp of how it deploys uniformed patrol officers. He said the changes will more evenly spread the workload across the county for patrol officers on their beats, giving them more time to get out of their marked vehicles and engage with residents.

Waters said both Duval Connect and the patrol changes are aimed at enhancing community policing so residents and law enforcement are working together in partnership.

"Community policing is not just walking around shaking hands," Waters said in an interview afteward. "Community policing is getting the community involved with ConnectDuval and getting the community involved with our unsolved crime database. That's the citizens themselves being a part of the solution."

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Some in the audience have their own long-standing ideas for how the Sheriff's Office can work better with the community. The Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, which advocates for creation of a civil review board of the Sheriff's Office, joined the UNF Students for a Democratic Society and Take 'Em Down Jax for a rally before the town hall.

Northside Coalition member Kelly Frazier, whose late father Ben Frazier founded the group, called the town hall an "overblown commercial for JSO" with just 19 minutes for questions from audience members.

She said in a tweet those who attended "were treated to the underwhelming announcements of newly drawn police zones, a program to give JSO access to our home cameras, and a new cruiser." The reference to the cruiser involved Waters announcing the model and make of the patrol vehicle the department will be using in the future. He said the new style will be brought into the fleet as typical turnover occurs.

A new patrol vehicle is unveiled during a town hall meeting hosted Wednesday by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Sheriff T.K. Waters said the new vehicle will be added to the patrol division as the usual turnover of aging vehicles takes place.
A new patrol vehicle is unveiled during a town hall meeting hosted Wednesday by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Sheriff T.K. Waters said the new vehicle will be added to the patrol division as the usual turnover of aging vehicles takes place.

Members of the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment, known as ICARE for short, wore black clothing to recognize the 130 people who died of criminal homicide in Jacksonville in 2022. ICARE wants the Sheriff's Office to establish an adult civil citation program for minor, non-violent offenses. ICARE said that would give the Sheriff's Office the ability to focus more of its resources on violent crime.

Waters said his agency did an extensive study of how to reconfigure patrol zones. He said in the zones that have been used for decades, the calls for service created the highest workload per officer on the Westside and in parts of the Southside down to Mandarin.

The new boundaries will help to even out the workload and give all officers time to "get out of their vehicles and walk around neighborhoods and have those very important personal conversations with our citizens," Waters said during the gathering.

He said the "data-driven realignment" shows the Sheriff's Office needs 216 more police officers to adequately staff each of the police service districts.

"This is not a shoot from the hip or pie in the sky number," Waters said. "The need for this project was great, and our goals and expectations for this project are lofty in no uncertain terms."

The Sheriff's Office currently has just over 3,300 positions when counting police, corrections and civilian employees. The current cap for police office positions is 1,828. Of those positions, about 1,200 are in the patrol division whose uniformed officers drive in marked cars through neighborhoods and respond to 911 calls for assistance, so adding 216 positions for patrol services would be a substantial increase.

New Mayor Donna Deegans's proposed 2023-24 budget would provide funding for 40 new police officer positions. The Sheriff's Office also is seeking a federal Community Oriented Policing Services grant that would pay a large portion of the cost for creating another 40 police positions, bringing the total of new positions to 80.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office joins Clay and St. Johns counties in embracing Fuson tech

While patrol officers are the eyes and ears of the Sheriff's Office in neighborhoods, security cameras also would play a bigger role in the future highlighted by Waters.

The Clay County Sheriff's Office, which was the first in the Jacksonville area to partner with Fusus, shows people have registered 47 cameras and integrated another 1,624 cameras with the Fusus technology as part of the Connect Clay County program. The integration of the cameras gives the Sheriff's Office access to the video feed but only at such times as the camera owner agrees to provide that access.

Members from the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment congregate and cling to signs reading 130 that the group says is how many died in criminal homicides in 2022 in Jacksonville. ICARE members were among those who attended a town hall meeting hosted by Sheriff T.K. Waters.
Members from the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment congregate and cling to signs reading 130 that the group says is how many died in criminal homicides in 2022 in Jacksonville. ICARE members were among those who attended a town hall meeting hosted by Sheriff T.K. Waters.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and its Connect St. Johns program has registered 491 cameras and integrated Fusus technology into 669 cameras, according to the department. A day after the town hall, Jacksonville owners had already registered hundreds of cameras at connectduval.org.

Wednesday's presentation said investigators already seek video footage when they are trying to solve crimes. ConnectDuval will let them know faster where to ask for such footage rather than going door to door making that request. Even if the cameras do not show the actual crime itself, they might capture video of perpetrators going to the scene of the crime or leaving it.

But some local governments have had concerns about how the use of cameras for crime-fighting might erode constitutional rights. When the Columbia City Council in Missouri voted last November against the Columbia Police Department using Fusus, the council heard nearly 20 people speak in favor and about 30 against it during a public comment period, according to a Columbia Daily Tribune news report.

The Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association raised concerns in a letter to Columbia city leaders.

"While business owners may indeed be required to give their consent before their cameras will be connected to the Fusus system, the businesses' employees and customers certainly are not required to give their permission," the letter said. "It is they whose activities will be placed under surveillance."

The civil liberties association also questioned whether independent data shows the Fusus program actually makes a difference in reducing crime or catching offenders.

The Clay County Sheriff's Office is an enthusiastic supporter of the program that its brought to businesses, homeowner associations and churches. Robbie Tarter, community connect coordinator there, called the technology a "game changer" that is the "future of crime fighting" in a podcast interview he did with Fusus.

"We've been able to solve crimes time and time again using those cameras," Tarter said.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Sheriff's Office will partner with Fuson camera tech