JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It has been one week since the use of a gun registry at two Jacksonville city buildings became public. Since then, nine city employees have been named in a subpoena by the state attorney’s office.

The controversy started after city leaders learned that gun logs were kept at security check points at the city hall building and Yates building. The State Attorney’s Office started a probe into the matter on April 22, 2025. The Jacksonville City Council’s rules committee discussed the issue during a May 5 meeting where they vowed to find out how the policy was allowed in the first place. 

Florida law prohibits local governments from keeping a record of privately owned firearms, and governments entities found guilty of breaking the law could face up to a $5 million fine.

Since the rules committee meeting, First Coast News has obtained standard operating procedure documents for ‘Check Points and Perimeter Security.’ Updates were made to the ‘Concealed Weapons and Firearms’ portion of the document. It directs security personnel to “at a minimum record the name, state issued photo ID unique identification number, age, and weapon type in the WEAPON AND FIREARM LOGBOOK.” 

The final draft of this updated policy directive is dated June 30, 2023. This was the last day of former mayor Lenny Curry’s term. The final post order for the updated policy is dated July 24, 2023 after Mayor Donna Deegan took office.

Curry released an official statement on the issue after Deegan’s office said the policy was created and written before she took office. First Coast News sat down with Curry for an interview on Friday. He said any allegations that this policy was created by his administration are false.

“They’re gonna have to take an oath and tell exactly what happened, and then we’re gonna know all the facts. But what we know crystal clear now is these logs started in July of 2023, which is when she had been sworn into office,” Curry said.

The updated check points and perimeter security documents mention Mike Soto, the Facilities Manager for the City of Jacksonville. We also obtained emails between Soto and First Coast Security Services, the company operating the checkpoints at City Hall and the Yates building. 

Soto sent an email to FCS on July 3, 2023 during Lenny Curry’s term asking the company for input on the updated policy directives. A July 13, 2023 email between Soto and FCS stated the changes to the security orders had not been approved at that point. 

Deegan has maintained she did not know about the policy directive or the logs, and they were stopped as soon as her office was made aware. She addressed the issue during a unrelated press conference on Wednesday.

“It’s no longer part of the processes in the city of Jacksonville, as I said in the statement that I released earlier, it began before I was sworn into office. That’s not in an effort to lay blame on anybody. It is simply that when we became aware of it, we stopped it,” Deegan explained.

The State Attorney’s Office has now subpoenaed text messages and emails for nine city employees, and issued subpoenas for all logbooks that record the entry of weapons and firearms into city buildings, and all communications regarding security and firearms.

City Councilman Nick Howland was the first to publicly address the gun logs. He said city council is ready to assist the state attorney in this investigation. He believes laws were broken and someone should be held accountable. 

“All we can do right now is wait and see what the output of the criminal investigation by the state attorney…we look forward to the output and and making sure that we get to the bottom of it. Jacksonville deserves the truth,” Howland said.

Gov.  Ron DeSantis echoed calls for accountability during a roundtable event in Jacksonville Friday morning.

“Our constitution is very clear, doing these secret gun registries is completely unacceptable, and I know you have Republicans on the city council that are pursuing this, and I know others will likely pursue, but there will need to be accountability, absolutely,” DeSantis said.

The city’s Office of General Counsel, an independent entity from the mayor’s office, has hired the Bedell law firm as outside legal counsel in this matter. 

The mayor’s office is now reviewing all policy directive from both the previous and current administration to make sure all comply with state law.