Report: JSO body cam footage proves hundreds of complaints inaccurate
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (FLV) – Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office highlighted hundreds of complaints they said were proven to be inaccurate against officers.
A 2022 allegations of misconduct analysis showed that 708 citizen complaints out of 1,377 against police officers did not warrant an in-depth investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
Last week, the sheriff’s office arrested a man for allegedly falsifying an officer complaint. The Internal Affairs Unit conducted a review of the officer’s body camera footage and revealed “no evidence of any misconduct.”
According to sheriff’s office, 313 of the 708 after review were not found to go against JSO policy and warrant misconduct by an investigation through body camera footage.
The other 395 were found to not warrant an in-depth investigation without having to use body camera footage.
During 2022, Internal Affairs received 1,377 complaints from both external and internal sources. There were 1,021 complaints from external sources that included both citizen complaints and inmate complaints, which is up from 918 in 2021.
From 2020-2022, 2,046 total complaints filed were found to not warrant an in-depth investigation and of those 2,046 complaints, body camera footage was used to help determine 1,080 of them were false, which is over half.
As of April 14, three JSO employees had been arrested this year by the sheriff’s office. In 2022, 10 JSO employees were arrested for criminal offenses.
On Friday, JSO arrested correctional officer Derrick Scott for child abuse of a nonsexual nature, a third degree felony. This is the third arrest of a JSO employee in 2023.
“As I’ve said before, we never relish arresting an employee of this agency. However, our collective belief in transparency [….] Accountability outweighs any personal allegiance,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said.
The JSO Integrity Unit conducted an investigation Thursday pertaining to Scott after the agency was notified of potential criminal allegations, according to officials.
Scott has been employed by JSO for over four years and immediately resigned upon his arrest, according to Waters.
There is limited information pertaining to the case because it is an active criminal case with a child victim.
“This agency will always professionally handle our investigations, exhibiting neither prejudice nor favoritism based on a suspect’s identity,” Waters said. “No one, and I say again, absolutely no one is above the law.”
“JSO will always be governed by the rule of law and never by personal sentiments.”
