Sheriff T.K. Waters talks transparency, plans to reduce crime in exclusive interview
JACKSONVILLE (FLV) – Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters exclusively spoke with Florida’s Voice about his long-term plans to lead the sheriff’s office.
Waters is the only candidate who qualified for Duval County’s spring elections in the sheriff’s race.
Reducing Crime
His plans to reduce crime in Jacksonville include redrawing zone maps which, according to Waters, have been the same for more than 20 years. He said the department has already begun working to make sure zones are determined by population so deputies can respond more quickly.
“We are redrawing our zones which is very important. For a long time we’ve kept with the same zone maps, over 20 years and being a long time veteran at JSO, I know it’s time for those to change. We’ve began work on making sure our zones [….] are population based,” Waters said. “Each area of our city should be equal in the number of citizens that are there so that we can provide an equal number of police officers, respond quicker, make our beats smaller and have more visibility.”
Waters campaigned on targeting violent criminals and gangs for prosecution. He explained the JSO has been identifying and visiting gang members and “tell them exactly what’s gonna happen” by explaining the resources they will use to stop them. The sheriff said they have built an outreach and support program for those who “want to get out of that lifestyle.”
“What we’ve been doing and what we’re gonna continue to do cause it works, you know you’ll hear people say that ‘I believe that it doesn’t work,’ but it does work,” Waters said. “We identify gang members, we go and visit those gang members, we tell them exactly what’s gonna happen, ‘you stop or we’re gonna use every resource that we have to stop you,’ and we’ve been doing that.”
I’ll tell you this, we’ve actually found young men that have committed some of the most horrific crimes you can think of that are connected to those gangs, built very strong cases against them and they’ll never be out to hurt anyone else. I’m talking about multiple shooters, I’m talking about different, I mean, the numbers are incredible, some of the things that they’re responsible for. So it’s working, cause we’re getting those guys off the street. At the same time, we built a outreach and support program to help us make connections with our community who’s partnered with us and those young men or women [….] that want to get out of that lifestyle and do something different and become a productive member of our community.
Sheriff T.K. Waters
The sheriff’s efforts are laser focused on reducing crime so people will continue to move to Jacksonville.
“I want to make sure that we work on our violence so that everyone in this city can live safely, peacefully, you know without the fear of being a victim of a crime. Jacksonville’s a good place and a great city and we wanna continue to make it so, so that people want to continue to move here and live here,” Waters said.
Transparency
Waters said he wants to build the police department up to an “acceptable level” where the community can receive the transparency they deserve.
“I want to be more forward facing. Transparency we’ve already started, we began that very early on. Within the first 60 days, we created the Transparency Policy that’s never been created before in the sheriff’s office. I want to build our police department up to an acceptable level where we can provide the public service that the people of Jacksonville deserve,” Waters said.
In December, Waters announced a new Agency Transparency Policy for the first time in the history of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Waters explained that the agency wants people to know that they are willing to share information to create trust with the community.
It will provide information to the public related to JSO’s open data transparency website, officer’s body-worn cameras involving shooting incidents, criminal investigations of JSO members and public relation materials.
“I think people overwhelmingly people trust us and believe in us, but I think there is a segment of our community that doesn’t so we want to make sure that we [….] let people know that we are more than willing to share information cause you know, there’s this belief that there’s this thin blue line where no one crosses it, well that’s not the case and we want people to know that. And I think coming from the top, people understand that,” Waters said.
Recently, Waters announced a JSO officer was arrested for falsifying a report. The sheriff explained JSO has an early warning system for internal complaints. They use their Professional Oversight Unit to review officers body cameras to make sure reports are accurate.
“When an officer writes a report where force has to have been used, our POU unit which is Professional Oversight Unit, they actually review those body cameras or those videos to make sure that what’s being said in the police reports or in those RTR’s are actually accurate and if they’re not, then there’s issues that we have to deal with,” Water explained.
Fentanyl Crisis
In 2021, the JSO investigated a “mind boggling” 409 overdose deaths. In 2022, that number “exploded” to 470. According to Waters, these deaths were related to fentanyl. Recently, JSO and other partnering agencies conducted an operation to shut down a major drug trafficking organization.
Waters said JSO’s Narcotics Unit works very hard to stop the flow of drugs in Jacksonville, especially fentanyl.
“They work very hard to identify those dealers and use many different ways to stop that flow of drugs into our community, especially fentanyl. Not that the rest of them are not important but fentanyl actually takes lives and takes lives at a high rate. So we’re doing that, we’re gonna continue to do that and I’ve tasked them to continue to focus on that,” Waters said.
Fentanyl is now the number one killer of Americans ages 18-45. The Drug Enforcement Administration announced they seized more than 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl in 2022, which is enough to kill every man, woman and child in the U.S.
Florida’s Voice asked Waters if he thinks the Biden administration’s border policies are contributing to the fentanyl crisis. Waters said the “open border policy” is a “problem.”
“I think that when you have an open border policy and you’re letting people in, they have to come in some way. And I know that a lot of those drugs come from different places around the world and they’re coming in through our southern border so it’s a problem,” Waters said.
Waters said the Biden Administration can “save the lives” of the community and “stop” the border crisis.
“I would say stop it. I would say do something about the border crisis, just stop it. Save the lives of our community, just stop it. You [the Biden administration] can do it,” Waters said.
Law Enforcement Morale and Recruitment
Gov. Ron DeSantis has delivered recruitment bonus checks for law enforcement officers moving to Florida. Waters said this has helped encourage law enforcement to work in Jacksonville from across the country.
“It’s been helping us quite a bit. People are moving to Jacksonville in droves. I heard today, about 85 per day we had gotten as high as 120 per day. A lot of folks are coming because Florida’s such a great place to live, our governor has made it a great place to live and they’re coming here and they’re applying,” Waters said. “We’re hiring, we’ve hired people from New York, we’ve hired people from all over the place.”
Waters explained how in Florida, “officers are free to utilize the statutes and do what needs to be done to keep people safe” while in other states officers are restricted. He doesn’t “believe in any excuse for victimizing people” and plans to hold criminals accountable as sheriff.
“For example, the bail laws in places like New York for example, there’s no such thing as bail anymore so you go in and in a lot of cases, it doesn’t matter for what, and you get out. Here in Florida, we’re standing fast, we’re holding criminals accountable, we’re gonna hold them accountable and now that I’m sheriff, they’re gonna be really held accountable because I don’t believe in any excuse for victimizing people,” Waters explained.
