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Jacksonville Sheriff's race looms as murders rise

Jacksonville topped 100 murders for the third year in a row. Here's how the candidates for sheriff plan to address it.

Jacksonville topped 100 murders for the third year in a row, after seeing steady increases in overall murders from 2011 to 2017.

Sheriff Mike Williams took the oath of office in 2015. The very next year saw a spike of 11 murders from 97 in 2015, to 106 in 2016.  The following year rose again with 109 murders in 2017, according to the FDLE.

While 2018 topped 100, Williams says it’s still four fewer than this time last year.

"Even though we're trending down, we're down four murders year to date [100 is] always a number we look at and always a number we'd like to stay well below,” Williams said.

While overall murders have gone up, so has the population in the city, so rates are holding more steady than the raw numbers suggest.


Williams says to make a significant impact on murder and violent crime rates, the department should continue the programs he helped put in place like body cameras for police officers, the shot spotter technology, which pinpoints gunshot locations, and strengthening relationships with the community.

"We feel like we have the things in place,” Williams said. “We've been able to work with the mayor and the [City] Council, adding new police officers, adding new technologies. We're going to continue focusing on that. It's not something that we're going to do now. After the election, it's going to continuing to focus on the work and staying in the direction that we know will have an impact on the community."

Challenger Dr. Tony Cummings sees it differently.

"It’s the very definition of insanity,” Cummings said. “If it hasn't been working since 2012 and murders have been on the rise since Mike Williams took office in 2015, why would you continue to with the same failed strategies?"

Cummings worked for 28 years in law enforcement and says if elected, he will focus more funds into training new officers as well as create a public accountability office and civilian review boards in the department.

"In some of the hard-hit areas, unfortunately, the citizens have lost faith and trust in our police officers and the administration's ability to address violent crime in our city,” Cummings said. “I want to turn that around and the only way to turn that around is by offering the citizens a seat at the table.”

Click here to learn more about Sheriff Mike Williams and his policies.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Tony Cummings and his platform.

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