JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — First Coast News is continuing to look into each candidate running to be Jacksonville’s next sheriff.
Tony Cummings spent 28 years in law enforcement, he is also a military veteran and holds a doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership. This will be his third run for the sheriff’s seat.
“On your website, the slogan is ‘It is time for a change’. If you are elected sheriff, what is the first thing you change on day 1?” asked First Coast News Katie Jeffries.
“Well, on day 1, I plan to get the public involved in the fight against crime in Jacksonville,” Cummings replied.
Cummings says he believes solving Jacksonville’s violent crime problem depends on building the public’s trust in the sheriff’s Office.
“Because that would allow the public a seat at the table when we are making decisions about how to use that $500 million in taxes that they pay to secure their neighborhood and protect their children and loved ones,” he says. "I want them there to have accountability and oversight over our operations."
He also believes there needs to be more transparency from JSO.
“If you had to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10, one being terrible and 10 being perfect, where would you put JSO relationship with the community?,” asked Jeffries.
“I would put it at a two. It is very low and this is just being honest,” he replied.
To boost that trust he says he is also in favor of a Civilian Review Board and supports community policing, by investing in nonprofits, and he says keeping officers community focused.
“As your sheriff, I will from day one make my officers understand that the community is counting on you,” tells Cummings.
"Counting on you in such a way that they are going to make sure they help steer them in the right direction. Because you are from them, you are a part of them and we are all in this together and we don’t want to lose sight of that as an organization."
He says a love of community has been instilled in him since he was young, raised by his mother with three siblings in the Northwest side of Jacksonville. Now a husband and father to two young women, he says violent crime is fracturing our community and tarnishing the image of Jacksonville, but worst of all, each murder brings pain to families.
“I never lose track that those numbers are human beings, that’s someone’s loved one over there on Jefferson street at the medical examiners’ office.
I want those numbers down,” he says.
Which is why he says he is running to be Jacksonville’s top cop.
“None of this will take place unless you have a sheriff that opens the door for these reforms to take place,” says Cummings. "Reforming the sheriff’s office is not defunding the sheriff’s office, I am not for defunding the sheriff’s office. I am for the people having a say in the resources that they pay for to drive the violent crime element out of our city, and we are going to do just that."