The sheriff who supervises the city that is notorious because he is Florida's 'murder capital' has revealed how his department has lowered the murder rates in recent years.
Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters has said that the opposition to 'defending the police' and the number of officers have been upheld, have been the key to fight murders in the city.
The city of Noordoost – Florida was given the gloomy name after the murder rates had risen in recent years – until 2023, when the police started to make a breakthrough.
About 134 murders were included in the city in 2022, a figure that fell to 122 in 2023, before by no less than 50 percent in just one year to 59 in 2024.
De Sheriff said that the total of 59 murders of last year was the lowest since 1995, when there were 86 murders in the city that are now home to nearly a million people.
“We have long had the bad reputation to be the murder capital of Florida, which I hate,” Waters told Fox News Digital. 'I don't like it at all – our city is much more than that. '
Waters said that receiving sufficient financing for his strength in recent years was the key to their success in combating violent crime.
“As the city grows, this agency must grow,” he said.
The sheriff who supervises Jacksonville (photo), the city that is notorious because he is Florida's 'murder capital', has revealed how his department has reduced the murder rates in recent years
Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters (photo) has said that the opposition to 'defend the police' and keeping the number of officers high are the key to combating murders in the city
'Technologically we have to grow and manpower we have to grow because there will be bags of this city that will not be covered if we do not get the financing we need.
'People deserve it when they call the police for us to appear in time.
'If we don't do that, we lose control and our city becomes unmanageable and we cannot function. The result of not discouraging us is huge. '
Waters added that in the midst of the consequences of the murder of George Floyd by an agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, his force like many others had problems recruiting.
“A while, especially around 2019-2020, when everything was really heated throughout the country, it was difficult to make people work because they were demonized and taxed as it should never be done,” he said Fox.
'These are ordinary people who have families, they have women, sons, daughters, nieces and cousins.
“They should never be taxed for doing a work that is very difficult and one that many people do not want to do or cannot do.”
He added that in 2016 he started a program with his predecessor in 2016 and focused exclusively on violent crime.
The sheriff who supervises Jacksonville (photo), the city that is notorious because he is Florida's 'murder capital', has revealed how his department has reduced the murder rates in recent years
“Over the years we have built a very robust way of how we deal with it,” Waters told Fox.
'One of these has been our community side, our stakeholders go out in the community and contact these young men that we know are involved in violent crime.
'We deliver a message – we want to keep you safe, we want to keep you alive and we want to keep you out of prison.
“But if you decide that you do not want to accept this offer, we will put you in prison, and we will tell them downright.”
