Faith leaders to put together citizen review board after failed attempts to meet with JSO over violence, officer conduct

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Members of the Jacksonville Leadership Coalition said at a press conference Friday they’ll be taking matters into their own hands after failed attempts to meet with Sheriff T.K. Waters over their concerns about violence and officer conduct.

“We are asking the aggressive behavior of the JSO officers to cease and desist immediately,” Pastor R.L. Reginald Gundy said.

At the news conference, News4JAX met Emogene King. This 30-year-old mother was badly injured after a crash in December and alleged poor treatment by the JSO officers who responded to the scene. We currently have her side of the story, and since JSO didn’t handle the crash, it didn’t write a report. News4JAX has asked FHP for the report. For transparency purposes, we are limiting some of the details of what King said happened.

King said she’s still healing from the car crash. But she said the response from police left a much deeper wound.

“The sheriff’s office pulled up… and I’m sorry, (crying) they were yelling,” King said.

King spent 17 days in the hospital, and now months later, recovery is challenging.

“I felt like a criminal, like I did something wrong. And I got when I hear people yelling I just I kind of freak out. Because I never thought that I go through something like that,” King said.

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It’s situations like hers where the Jacksonville Leadership Coalition said it has concerns about the conduct of JSO officers and the sheriff.

Gundy said he’s tried to have conversations with the sheriff but nothing worked out – which is why he called the news conference.

“This is a culture, and he may not be aware of what’s going on under him. But it is bad out here in this community,” Gundy said.

Gundy said he asked the sheriff to meet with him to talk about his concerns.

“I called him and I directly asked the Sheriff, I said ‘Sheriff, we still haven’t met. Let’s talk.’ And he said, ‘Well, you can come to my office’ and I said, ‘sheriff, I don’t want to come to the office, I don’t want to be around all your officers, I just want you want to sit down and have a conversation about all of this,’” Gundy said.

Gundy said starting Friday, they’ll be putting together a citizen review board that will take concerns from citizens and ask the Human Rights Commission, the State Attorney, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and even the Justice Department to investigate.

For years, different organizations have called on the city council to create a citizen review board, but it’s never happened.

“Sheriff Rutherford, Sheriff Williams, this sheriff, has never wanted to have anybody to look at the conduct of their police officers, they always wanted to handle conduct themselves. But it still would speak volumes to them if they would have an independent law enforcement agency to look at the issues that they’re doing and the things that they’re committing in this city. It just makes sense,” Gundy said.

State lawmakers want to take that option off the table. They’re considering a pair of bills that would abolish local civilian police review boards.

The House version is up for a second reading on Friday. The Senate version has already been heard for a third reading.

Since he took office, Waters has regularly met with people throughout Jacksonville to hear their concerns about crime and violence.

Last Saturday, the sheriff and his staff held another crime prevention walk, going door to door and speaking one-on-one with neighbors on the Westside.

MORE | Sheriff T.K. Waters continues to bridge the gap between police, community with 4th neighborhood walk

But Gundy said he and others have been left out of the conversations.

He said despite his requests, the sheriff has refused to meet with him and other faith leaders about their concerns.

Gundy specifically mentioned ICARE, a group that wants to address crime and other problems in the community. The group said the sheriff was invited to its community event on Monday, but he did not attend.

Those who were there discussed a string of shootings over the weekend.

Gundy also recommended what he calls a Juvenile Justice Comprehensive Strategy Board, which would include the sheriff, mayor and state attorney. He said it would focus on prevention and intervention for youth crime.

News4JAX sent detailed questions to JSO regarding the concerns raised on Friday but has not received a response at the time of publishing this article.