Ride-Along with Florida Sheriff (exclusive access)
Mar 08, 20251.5M Views40.4K Likes5.8K Comments
Not long ago, Jacksonville was known as the homicide capital of Florida. Last year, homicides dropped in half. Join the Sheriff and me as we drive around the city to learn about the proactive policing approach they have in the city and why it’s bringing results to the community.
🎵 MUSIC USED IN THE VIDEO:
► Chris Shards – Ghetto Dreamin’
it’s
thebi ready all right guys first time in
Jacksonville I can drive by a spot for
my years in homicide and tell you what
happened with a murder in that spot this
is the gang unit so I’m going out with
you guys we’re going to go out into
these neighborhoods talk to these people
yep you were in a gang at one time yes
sir unfortunately a shooting just came
in 23 rounds fired it’s the highest
highs and the lowest lows you know what
I love about you guys there’s like that
old world Southern Charm people are very
friendly if you know that you going to
get go to prison if you get caught doing
something don’t do family they don’t
care that’s not how you feed the family
you stop it here they’re going to go
where you stay at being told for years
and years we are the murder capital of
Florida so the pressure is on the
dealers here victim we lock him up
welcome to the firearm lab of course
people don’t know about the beautiful
parts of our city Family Support job
training education you have no excuse
everyone’s in their bubble and if you’re
not out here exposed to this you can be
naive right 100%
[Music]
all right Sheriff Waters who do we have
behind us here so we got Vic melucci
Emmy award-winning journalist and my
great friend Garland Scott who’s our
Outreach and support provider for our
violence reduction strategy violence
reduction strategy M we focus on
individuals that we know are responsible
for a large portion of violent crime if
they’re not wanted we’ll offer them a
way out if they are wanted we’ll put
them in jail and if they don’t take the
offer then we work very hard to get them
off of our street which is on my
responsibility okay so crime has always
been a big issue in Jacksonville looking
online I noticed for 12 years there were
over a 100 homicides a year yeah that
changed last year where you dropped that
by 50% that’s correct you’re obviously
biased cuz you’re in law enforcement but
that’s because of you guys right or or
what is that from yeah I think I think
um because of the men and women that
come here every day dedicate their lives
to this community contrary to what you
hear across the country about policing
they do a great job and when we have
those that don’t we tell the public
about it and we make sure we take care
of our business but everyone’s a
professional when it comes to policing
and law enforcement everyone outside of
the agency tells you how it should be
done and what needs to be done more than
anything else I’m going to give you an
example of something really quick if I
were to stop this car in front of me
it’s what 9:30 in the morning I bet you
can’t tell me or your audience can’t
tell me what the color of that driver is
oh yeah what color is a driver in that
car you can’t tell but the world would
have you believe that we stop People
based on what they look like if they
were committing a traffic violation they
happen to be a black male Hispanic male
white male you don’t find out until you
walk up to the car andan this is daytime
this is broad daylight the tent’s on
there but it’s not super dark tent she’s
black yeah but you never know that
because when I see it I don’t even know
what the color of this driver is I’m
behind the car you don’t go up beside
the car and look into the window say oh
that’s a black driver let me pull him
over doesn’t happen Okay so you guys
have been accused of pulling over more
black drivers is that why you’re saying
this no it’s just policing in general
say we we targeting profile blacks or
brown people or Hispanics or that’s not
the case we look for violations of the
law we hear about Drive buys we don’t
call them walk Buys so in order to stop
a driveby you stop cars cuz they’re
carrying guns they’re carrying drugs
they’re carrying illegal things oldtime
police work that everyone said was a
dirty word back in 2018 2020 it’s about
keeping order keeping Law and Order yeah
we’re we’re literally 48 hours away from
Pure chaos right if you guys all went
away y you think it’s 48 hours or even
less less if we all took off work it
would probably take a social media post
to let everybody know then it’s all it’s
all chaos been doing this all my adult
life and times have changed so
drastically and I think a big part of it
is social media social media is what
helps spread misinformation a lot of
times because there’s no context if you
show a a quick clip of a police officer
having to use deadly force in California
it travels all the way to Florida right
it travels all the way up to um
Wisconsin Montana it’s everywhere and
people think that that’s a picture of
what policing looks like right and there
are a million of encounters every year
between officers and the public right
yep and a very very small amount of
those percentage of those go wrong and
you’re dealing with the most messy
behavior on the planet like the the
hardest work in my opinion I don’t know
how you guys do it to be honest and then
right out of context you know maybe the
guy came at the officer officer had to
lock you know put pin him down on the
ground whatever happened and then take
that 10 seconds that goes viral police
are bad now what you are really well
known for is full transparency your
Sheriff’s Department y because officers
are off sometimes right I mean like
cross the line I think that’s super
important
in these times with social media
everyone gets held accountable yep every
single person is that a mosque yes it is
I wouldn’t have thought that in
Jacksonville oh yeah 100% actually I’ve
been there a couple times and met with
the folks in our Muslim Community let
them know listen no matter what you
believe personally your religion or what
it doesn’t matter all that matters in
our city is to make sure every person
gets the service they deserve and feels
as safe as possible
Jacksonville has a bunch of communities
all over the place that struggle with
crime with issues this is called Justina
everyone knows about it I can drive by
for my years in homicide I can drive by
a spot and tell you what happened with a
murder in that spot I’m going to take
you to a spot right now where there was
a horrific one and it was senseless
happened to an armed robbery of a
convenience store which is now closed
but a young man’s in the in the
convenience store doing his job and you
watch him die on video it was horrible
he was probably 19 years old but right
over here right up the road at a
convenience store which is basically
across the street from where we are
right now there’s an elementary school
right here okay Peter you go to these
places and 99% of the people are good
God-fearing people that are just
unfortunately in a situation where
there’s crime around cuz I know this as
a reporter before I worked for the
sheriff’s office I mean I was an
independent journalist I worked for a TV
station just yesterday a business owner
around here reached out he said hey can
you email all of your officers and just
let them know that they can stop by my
Diner at any time and get free coffee it
was incredible to to see the support
this was a rough neighborhood for a long
long time not too long ago we had an
officer who ended up having to use
deadly force and shoot a young man here
um did the guy come at him or had a gun
out he had a gun it’s actually that
video is on YouTube he pulled the gun
out and once the officer saw the gun he
told him to drop it he fired a couple
rounds the guy throws a gun after he got
hit he got up and continued to run
jumped a fence ended up on the doorstep
of a house where he eventually bled out
and passed
away that video is on YouTube also I
believe in getting those videos out as
quickly as possible because that’s the
way you keep civil unrest you keep that
down by making sure people are able to
see what exactly went on so when you’re
an officer and uh someone has a gun you
don’t know what’s going through their
head no obviously and if they start
pointing it your way you’re like am I
going to go see my wife tonight or not
right and so you’re like that guy dies
or I die is that what it is here’s what
I see here’s what I say and I say this
often time if you pull a gun if you’re
if you’re a guy and you’re in contact
with an officer and you pull a gun yeah
you’re asking us to try to figure out
what you’re thinking of what you’re
going to do and we don’t have much time
to figure that out so an officer is
going to use deadly force in a situation
like that because it’s not our job to
figure out what your plans are and what
you intend on
doing so I can remember the bad guy
broke in came in this door after he
robbed the young man he uh the young man
hit the magnetic lock
oh okay and locked him in and now at
this point he’s like a c Janan he he’s
going nuts trying to get out so he goes
over and he demands that the kid open
the door and the kid felt like he was
safe the young man felt like he was safe
because he was behind that glass
unfortunately when he fired that gun
found a weak spot I guess went through
and and hit him the bad guy comes over
to the door he’s locked in and he’s
kicking he’s kicking he’s kicking he
breaks the glass and he ends up opening
up one of the burglar bars or getting it
wide enough so he was a very small guy
getting it wide enough so he can squeeze
out but in the process he cut himself
and he bled okay so we came and worked
to Crime Scene collected the blood
collected the evidence and we put him
ran him through our Coda system it’s our
DNA recognition system he wasn’t in
there but what happens is after a
certain amount of time they will rerun
that blood through the system to see if
that person’s been picked up for
anything else okay well eventually he
got arrested for an aggravated battery I
believe he was in the system we were
able to catch him like
that that’s the owner of the diner Peter
that reached out oh okay that just wants
to give our officers coffee oh
University Diner way down there shout
out to University Diner when in
Jacksonville go there they got great
food right they do pancakes I hope yeah
pancakes always it’s always a winner
that’s what you want this is
Jacksonville University what I want to
show you is how quickly you know things
change in the city you know what I’ve
noticed in Florida I mean it’s all over
the United States but Florida is almost
a more extreme example your literally
blocks from multi-million dollar homes
yep to like blown out windows and Y so
down there is a neighborhood called
Charter Landing further down yeah and
that’s those homes you’re talking about
there homes on the river down there that
are very expensive and this is uh
Jacksonville University a private
university here in town good school
they’ve made significant investments in
the community in this section here so as
long as you’re over here you’re pretty
much good but if you go a few blocks I’m
sure during the day you’re fine but it
you know things things kind of change
for the most part our Arington area is
is is a good Community actually my son
is a patrol officer over here my dad
when he retired from the military he and
my mother settled not too far from where
we are now my intention really to was to
be like my dad and join the military but
when my friend cousin was murdered in
1990 in an apartment complex on the west
side I decided I want to be a police
officer so as soon as I got old enough I
applied to the Sheriff’s Office and got
hired as a corrections officer spent a
year there and then ever since then been
on the street here in Jacksonville so
that murder of your cousin totally
changed your life trajectory yeah it did
um when you’re 21 years old
20 you’re kind of idealistic and you
think you can save the world that’s
really not
true but you know I joined for that
reason because of him he was uh he was
more like a brother to me oh we had a
murder here also there us to be a small
strip club right here um fight broke out
this place right here this green Place
yeah fight broke out got took a shot
incredibly unlikely shot but he hit the
person he was aiming at and kill him wor
him was across the street but anyway um
when that happened my uh my life changed
because it was very impactful and I
wanted to do what I could because I saw
what it did to my aunt also my mom’s
sister and once that happened she was
never the same never the same and she
ultimately I think died earlier because
of the pressure and the strain of being
a victim um a victim’s parent parents
shouldn’t bury their kids which is a big
driver for me parents should never bury
their kids kids are supposed to bury
their parents
a person’s life is more than a statistic
or number there are real people that are
impacted by those kinds of losses and I
understand the loss I understand the
impact of those losses but you want to
improve so how do we measure Improvement
usually by statistics and numbers and I
don’t think a lot of people know this
even in this city there were homicide
numbers in the 200s in the late ‘ 80s
really oh yeah with a population of I
don’t know 700,000 people now that our
population’s a little over a million we
saw 59 murders last year you improve the
quality of life for every citizen in
this community you improve the city
overall the city grows businesses come
people want to live here families want
to move here and Jacksonville is
probably one of the older cities in
Florida right because it’s Northern
Florida yep the migration started in the
north went South right you got a nice
park here yep right down the road at St
Augustine the nation’s oldest city yeah
I’ll be doing a video there tomorrow
will yeah I got to say the streets are
pretty clean first impression first
impression I don’t see much trash down I
don’t see many people down here to be
honest yeah downtown is kind of small
you know we had a in 1800s we had a huge
fire here right that took a 10,000
people died right yeah took a lot of
people out I see it oh you got one of
these old post offices nice look at Rob
Bas there’s some guy with a camera
hanging out the side of your car what’s
up man ni you all right yeah how about
you good man I’m a part I heard this
spot was for you thank you for holding
it for me man I appreciate that I got s
like eight times who
really all right guys first time in
Jacksonville quiet downtown clean
downtown you could see some nice
buildings coming in you can see the
potential here some of these old
classics back in the day I’m sure the
street was busy with Commerce then we
have one of these old post offices that
you see in places like Chicago or New
York but you don’t see this in Florida
much don’t think but this isn’t a post
office anymore no it’s not but they had
to keep it for historical purposes thank
you and what’s your name I’m Rob bias
okay and Rob what what’s your position
here I’m a detective in the gang unit
detective in the G G Unit yes sir thanks
yes
sir what it
is what’s happening what’s going on guys
all right yes sir good man what’s up man
good feeling better yeah man much better
Dar what’s up
man come on out you always try to hurt
me man how you doing nice to meet you
nice to meet you I’m one of the
sergeants okay great good yeah so we
have the gang unit here yes this is this
is only a few of them this is what I
believe this is no not our Patrol
officers do an amazing job right but
this is where they focus on the gangs a
few people that do a lot who drive a lot
of violence in our city these guys focus
on them okay what are I mean for those
that don’t know Jacksonville like most
people if you go South Central LA in the
’90s it’s Bloods and Crips what what are
the gangs here do they have a name or
are they organized or they have names
they’re not very organized there are a
bunch of little violent dudes who have
no hierarchy they don’t have like a OG
and they’re they’re very violent and
they do stuff that normally if you had a
if you were out in LA and you had a
OG and you did something off script you
probably get smoked yourself yeah yeah
there was order to it right there’s no
order to it here well I think that’s a
trend all over the country yeah a lot of
the hierarchy in the late 90s early
2000s has gone away and so I I found a
lot of 40-year-olds to be scared of 17y
olds yeah uh that’s true right abely in
neighborhoods because there’s no order
no order and these kids haven’t fully
developed their brains and they they’re
they’re tweaked out on social media and
whatever else and they’re out there with
a gun and either that or the
entertainment groups the drill rappers
you have drill down here oh yeah I
thought that was a a Chicago thing no
man it’s it’s down here too man and the
thing about it is we like to run them
out of town There’s a couple of them
that didn’t they know they can’t live
here anymore and so for those that don’t
know drill rap the lyrics are are
hard-hitting crime driven go go do this
uh beef to me I’m going to beef you
there was a particular song I don’t even
want to mention it cuz I don’t want to
give these guys any credit but um there
was a song was Vanessa Carlton yes yes
what’s the name of that song real catchy
everybody likes it yeah um Thousand
Miles they sampled her song and then
they made a they made a song a rap to
and they were talking about people that
actually been killed in Jacksonville
about five or six of them right they
named in that song they did name them um
but that’s what that’s what drill rap is
it’s nonsense but it’s impactful because
they’re talking about people that have
actually been killed those those people
have parents they have mothers they have
fathers they have brothers and sisters
that feel the effects of what’s going on
they think it’s a joke
now the young men that we go to visit
are young men that are either involved
in gangs or have names have popped up
several different times about about
violence in our community and they’re
not wanted which is if they were wanted
we visit them another way but we’ll
visit them today it’s not
confrontational usually we have a packet
with pictures of them you know whether
they be on social media holding AK
holding 223s to Draco whatever whatever
it is they’re carrying and we’ll let
them know listen we know what you’re up
to you’re not want it right now so you
have an opportunity the opportunity is
you quit and if you don’t want to quit
we’re going to make you quit because
we’re going to put you in prison Pastor
Scott Garland he’ll talk to them with
some of our Community Partners sometimes
he prays with them if they want prayer
and um then we wait see what their
decision is so this is what you mean by
proactive policing MH part of it the
other part is what they do um a lot of
stuff that they do is they follow these
guys on Instagram Instagram live um they
understand what’s going on they hear
about things that are going on then we
interdict them before they get a chance
to go do bad stuff you guys didn’t think
in what your 40s that you’d be
instagramming so much no we leave that
to the young we know what they do we let
them do it okay okay guys that’s what
we’re going to do now so we can go back
he’s going to brief they’re going to
brief they’re going to go over to packet
talk it out real quick okay so I’m going
out with you guys we’re going to go out
into these neighborhoods talk to these
people y awesome 100% okay it’s going to
be good you ready
we got exra SE up so I got to beep out
the names and blur the faces from the
packet yeah great yeah all right good
morning everyone um we’re going to do
custom notifications this morning as we
do on most Thursday mornings um you guys
know know the drill know what we’re
doing I will turn it over to Garland and
um go to Johnny and go over the
individuals who uh we’re going to go see
okay we usually have a community
involvement today we decided not to have
anybody with with us so we wouldn’t have
any um Outsiders we wanted to really
work this tight today I’m going to pass
this to you he
the names and Sergeant is going to go
over who we’re going to see the brief so
we’ll know this is very important to us
because if they are home later on we go
to the door we can justify why we’re uh
visit their house so Sergeant yes sir so
we’ve identified four gentlemen we’re
going to go speak with this morning the
first one is he just got out of prison
he is a part of 1200 ai’s gang there’s
no violent crimes that he’s been tied to
as far as his criminal record but he has
about 15 pages of Narcotics charges so B
into the dope game then we’ll go to he
also just got out of prison he’s part of
ybr um also criminal charges of
Narcotics and aggravated assault um also
he’s online posting money uh
AK-47 on his uh
Instagram then we have he also just got
out of prison he is also part of AI 21st
gang uh criminal history of Narcotics
weapons charges uh DL charges also
posting online social media with guns
throwing up Game T then we’ll finish up
with he is a ybh POI uh young group that
just came up that Detective Connor was
able to shut down he has burglary Auto
thefts written threats criminal
mischiefs so and he also has a juvenile
criminal record of those things also on
social media posting
guns detective a major beond Navigator
will’ll meet at the grass lot and uh
we’ll be on game Trel sounds good okay
will usually pray before we leave if you
don’t want to be involved in prayer step
out or leave father we thank you for
another opportunity to go out and apply
Justice or Grace please go with us uh
protect the vehicles protect us most of
all protect our families that they’re
better when we return than we left this
we ask in Jesus name amen
amen this is the unit that took down a
lot of the murderers involved in the
drill rap murders including a very very
high-profile one for a guy named what’s
up brother guy named Julio
fulio famous famous rapper from
Jacksonville he got murdered in Tampa
but we worked closely with Tampa
Police ended up arresting five
people thanks in large part to the
intelligence and the work that they that
they had on the
case it’s a letter that we give to the
house if no one answers the door we’re
not really concerned too much because
the letter is so powerful is from the
sheriff tell you we stopped by because
you was involved in some activity but
this is the good news you have the
courage to call okay the good news good
news is we are here to help you the
violent reduction section of strategy to
help you get your life together and we
have probably a 45% call back so if no
one answers that door they will
definitely call the 91 here we see so
Social Services Family Support
counseling life coaching job training
education
uh trade school subsid abuse treatment
job placement you guys offer that all
here in Jacksonville we have over 138
Outreach and support provider so you
have no excuse we can help you with
pretty much everything it’s there if you
want it’s already there we built it
before we went and hit the
doors they don’t make them like this
anymore unfortunately isn’t this
beautiful awesome it’s really and it’s a
fortress for hurricanes oh I bet so this
is the state attorney’s office and our
assistant State Attorneys the
prosecutors they respond to the crime
scenes to the homicides to these cases
alongside the detective so they’re
really there from the ground up and you
have targeted
prosecutors that work hand inand with
the detectives here so they’re all on
the same page yeah when the da or the
state attorney is totally out of sync
with law enforcement that’s where the
problems lie now it could be a bad
Police Department it could be a bad da
sure you want two good things come
together and you’ll see Peter that they
both hold each other accountable right
right right we’re both making sure that
everybody is is doing the right thing
for the people of Jacksonville but they
they’re tight when the da in San
Francisco said the criminals are the
victims and it just went to chaos land
that’s when I knew things were out of
whack and he got see that he got
recalled very quickly even in San
Francisco yeah so a lot of people don’t
understand how law enforcement works in
the US and I didn’t until I started
making these videos police departments
and Sheriff departments totally separate
sheriff is elected by the people that’s
correct police appointed by the city
government that’s correct okay so that’s
why sheriffs can speak openly very
freely other than Glendale Police shout
out to Glendale Arizona who actually let
me in but no other police departments
have let me in so Jacksonville we’re
very unique we’re the only Consolidated
Government I believe in the state what
that means is I’m the the elected
Sheriff but I’m over policing over all
the Incorporated areas not just rural
but all the Incorporated areas of Duvall
County that’s why we’re called
Jacksonville police but I’m the sheriff
you’re over the police too then the
sheriff’s department is it’s all one
interesting That’s Unique corre yeah so
we are municipal police officers they
are and Deputy sheriffs both okay and
they answer to me who answers to the
public not to a mayor not to a city
council not to a city manager I’m not
controlled by politics um I’m controlled
by what’s right and if you do a good job
that people like to if you do a bad job
they don’t that’s right 100% And so my
goal is to please the community not
please the city
government this video is sponsored by
ground news if you’re watching my
content then you realize the world is a
very complicated place you’re here to
learn with an open mind unfortunately in
2025 all media has a bias and every
Journal has an angle one way to parse
through this problem is with an app and
website I’ve been using called Ground
news the feature I love the most about
ground news is its blind spot feature it
allows you to flip from new source to
news source and see how the same story
is covered in a completely different way
exposing the political bias of a news
publication for example the headline
Democratic lawmaker calls for Eric Adams
to resign at hearing is mostly covered
by the left and something the right is
barely seeing and another example here
Social Security Administration says it’s
identified over $800 million in savings
is covered by the right and center and
ignored by the left use ground news to
get all sides of every story be better
informed with access to a vast amount of
worldwide sources in one place and see
who owns what media and follow the trail
of where the money is coming from if you
like my content I think you’ll like
ground news too go to ground news.com
Peter to check it out subscribe through
my link Down Below in the description to
get 40% off unlimited access now back to
the
story so Garland you were in a gang at
one time yes sir wow where New York city
so you’re here now there’s a story of
that yes it is what
happened uh my number got called they
put a contract on me and told me I had
that I guess I got too big and a rival
um group put a number on my head as a
bag for me to leave town and I thought
it was a gang until they start taking
out some of my little um
Runners so I had to contact mom and
police to help me and they um got me out
on Am track train number 86 silver
Express to Jacksonville Florida they
said I had some relatives in a little
town called Nate Hunter Florida I can go
there and hide in the woods and I did
what year was that 89
88 so when there was a bag over your had
like a high dollar amount back then it
was high it was 5,000 okay which would
be like what 15,000 hour or something
what would that be today I don’t know a
lot of money a lot of money yeah
together so uh when I got here um I was
bored because New York City to n Hunter
Georgia was a drastic change I was used
to chickens and pigs and all of that
stuff so I ended up in Orange Park ended
up at a church and I thought the church
was going to fix it but I got put out
the first day because I was making a lot
of
noise the noise was um that was on
script a lot of noise and then the noise
went the noise um was um if you tired of
getting drugs and high you know God can
fix it and I stood up and said I’m ready
and they said not yet so about three
times they did that finally they they
asked me to leave so I was a little
distraught so I pulled up the church
chch on my motorcycle and with shorts
and stuff I didn’t know about a dress
code and all of that so a older guy said
he’s going to help me Mentor me and I
found out boy at church you can get
women food and money if you speak good
so I worked it pretty good for two years
until I wanted to go see my mother and
when I went home to go see
her um I ran into one of my
Runners and he was meing me was telling
me what he was doing and all
I didn’t have the courage to tell him I
had backed off mini old you yeah he was
like me okay so I trained him everything
3 hours I left and driving home I
remember the drive I kept thinking about
it and thinking so I decided when I get
back to Florida I was going to fly him
in and get him to change his life when I
called back my brother told me you
didn’t hear I said what he said when you
left them cats that was looking for you
roll up on him and the words were they
bust seven caps and and he’s dead that’s
why my life changed and ever since then
everybody’s been that young man so
that’s my driving force behind doing
this so I’ve been doing it ever since
then
wow has religion played a big part in
your policing yeah it does it really
does because there’s a passage in Romans
13 that says um you’ll see it on the
back of my coin also it says but if you
do do that which is evil be afraid for
we bear not the sword in vain I believe
that we’re here to do a job and I
believe the good Lord approves of it as
long as we do it with the right heart we
do it the right way and that’s why I’m
bullish on being proactive being being
very very hard when it’s time to be hard
um but being
balanced that’s the jail right there Y
and there’s the sheriff’s department
that’s right there to the right and so
we’re going with the team yeah we’re
going to meet up at in in a grass
parking lot across street from the
police station to make sure everybody’s
there together and then we’ll um we’ll
roll out from there okay oh this is
nicer Waterfront down here oh yeah St
John’s river one of the few rivers in
the world that flows north yep that and
the Nile River would you jump in it or
it’s not that clean I would jump in it
to save a life but I’m not swimming in
it for the fun of it I do is that why
you’re so tall fck yeah if you have a
day I’ll take you on the boat oh man I
wish I grew up skiing in and
wakeboarding and swimming in here and
that’s what I think we should be taking
advantage of this building is in is in
the way and right so you’re saying this
Sheriff’s apartment goes somewhere else
frees up this beautiful real estate yep
brings the downtown back a little bit
yep and you got just cool old stuff like
this you know yeah so that’s a fire
Museum and it’s funny story they
relocated that that was down the street
they’ve made this into like a Museum
District that ship right there is a
museum so just to kind of create a
section or a segment of the city where
you can see some history the nest of
Four Seasons In The Four Seasons yeah
being built down there it’s being built
there and then this part of your team is
called what blight they go and look for
trashy parts of the city or where
Sometimes some while homeless population
congregates and then they go and respond
to those complaints and go clear some of
that stuff
out like it’s the
FBI we’re talking about the good things
y’all do
are you guys okay on camera we are
now this is the team so there’s only the
only five of us Peter you remember when
you were asking like you were talking
about how things look look clean yeah
and it’s it’s largely because not all
them but it’s largely because they get
notifications they see a homeless camper
they they go and attack that stuff or
they get they they get compl campers can
be parked on the side of the street for
multiple days no right lots of
transients you you know utilize our
overpasses for shelter and we now have
state law that does not allow this and
uh we offer them the services here
within our city that may be a better
option for them if you want shelter if
you want food uh veteran services um so
okay in Jacksonville that’s that’s
interesting I’m all over the country so
I see every sorry about
this I see all different sorts of
jurisdictions and how they operate sure
so some places right now are just
letting it Fly they just let it go out
of control you offer them housing or
Services if they don’t want that what
happens to them our first Contact on
camping is a warning and we really want
to try to utilize the options that are
correct within society and if they just
fail to do that then they do qualify for
a physical arrest or possibly even the
what we call a notice to appear here
it’s in Li of our physical arrest it’s a
notice where they have to go before a
court and you know just give their
reasoning to the judge for example me
and officer Norton this morning uh so
the blight team went out this morning
and did what’s called like um a clean up
of downtown area we go out weekly do
that with the city city of Jackson
litter Cru and so we’ll follow them to
different locations where they’ll go up
and pick up trash around the downtown
area and we spotted a young woman on the
side of the road who looked like she
needed some help and so me and officer
Norton actually stopped by we had the
downtown Ambassador with us we spoke to
her for a little bit uh turns out she’s
Homeless looking for help didn’t know
where to go to and you know young woman
and you know knowing the area and
knowing the places down here it’s very
easy easy to become a victim of you know
sex trafficking or human trafficking
drugs crime whatever and um you know she
admitted to us that hey yes I am an
addict you I have been using I have a
criminal history and we said you know
what what what are you trying to do what
can we do to help you out and that first
she you know made a mention of well
maybe you know I’ll just take myself to
a hospital and try to get a bed that way
we said well how about we call jfrd Path
team and we see if we can get you up
with some shelter shelter services and
whatnot I was able to make a phone call
and within less than 10 minutes they
came out with a van and the jfd
lieutenant came out got her information
and she was able to hop on that van and
go get services and and that’s as simple
as not only will she get a guaranteed
bed for the night but they’ll also help
her with wraparound Services making sure
that she has you know a Florida ID card
make sure that she’s set up with you
know after action care and stuff like
that um you know we we do a lot in the
city of Jacksonville that I think other
cities maybe don’t do and the overall
just fix the look of the city you know
here in Jack go we actually have that
opportunity see you guys thank you see
y’all
later ready
ready for sir all right to take a major
we’re going to pull out of the grass lot
make a right hand turn are we going with
all these cars here yeah all
right okay so what I’ve learned by doing
this work all over the country or what
I’ve observed and the conclusion I’ve
come to now with everything new evidence
comes to light I can change my opinion
but if you don’t have the hey you have
to get off the street approach as in
therapy housing or punishment then the
vast majority
aren’t and you need that component you
have to address it and and then your
Parks get taken over now your kids can’t
play in the park you have to address it
and I’m going to go back to this quite a
bit balance is very important as a
sheriff you have to hear everyone’s
voice you have to hear the voices of
concern you have to have empathy but you
have to hear the voices of the people
that also provide services in our
community that want something done about
it yeah they’re trying to raise their
family they live in a nice neighborhood
now they can’t their kids can’t play in
the park that’s a problem correct you
address it as humanely as possible but
at the same time it’s a delicate balance
where yeah I get it but we’ve done what
we could to warn you and make sure you
don’t find yourself in this situation
but because you don’t want to listen
then we have to take another ride
right it’s calling uh I mean it’s like
raising kids which I’ve never done but I
can see how kids grow up if the parent
if there are no
boundaries then the kid does what they
want it’s just basic human psychology
sure 100% so you’re underpasses here the
blight team is not going to allow them
to be right you can’t Camp under there
okay and so back to the drug issue what
do you seeing here in Jacksonville used
to be crack cocaine now it’s fentel
there is meth but it hasn’t taken over
like it did in the Midwest and some of
the other places but fentel has killed
so many people in our community that’s
been it’s all over the country
everywhere hug and it’s not just in the
cities I’ve been to the far outposts in
Alaska and I’ve met families that have
lost someone to fend on it’s crazy is it
just this hockey stick upward Trend
right now or is it flattened out a
little bit no it’s it’s starting to
starting to drop starting to drop yeah I
think um we’ve taken down some pretty
big drug organizations that were running
through Jacksonville with connections to
Mexican cartels yeah and um this is not
a political statement but quite honestly
with the crack down on the border and
making sure that um that’s controlled
I’m thinking we’re going to see even
further drives cuz that’s going to drive
the price up yeah what’s a what’s a a
fentanyl blue right now like a little
tab Little P you I’m so far out of it I
don’t know um Vic do you know roughly
how much it is on the street here I
don’t know in Phoenix in Phoenix in
Phoenix right now it’s two bucks $2 you
can buy a bottle of water for more money
at the mini Mark than F so our overdoses
are down significantly almost to the
tune of the homicides okay why is that
because we have a specific Squad of
people detectives that go out and they
investigate overdoses and in the State
of Florida you could be charged with
manslaughter potentially murder for
selling a lethal dose so if you that
poon dealer that drug so the pressure is
on the dealers here big time we lock
them up every year we locked people up
for 30 plus years for selling a dose of
drugs that killed somebody so they’re
scared about that our narcotics people I
mean they’re going on raids tomorrow
they went on raids earlier this week our
detectives are out there day in and day
out man do you have a Mexican cartel and
you mentioned them but are they they
have a big presence here or not really
no they don’t they the only presence
they had here was their drugs were being
trafficked through Jacksonville and in
Jacksonville
so um one was a new generation New
Generation Mexican cartel and the other
one um G cartel Gulf cartel yeah yeah
the issue of the Border it’s not just a
a southern border issue or or a northern
border issue it’s an issue for the
entire country because the drugs make
their way to our cities and um fair to
say though as long as there’s a demand
they’ll always be here just just the
price will go up if the border is more
sealed I I think so but they won’t they
don’t have as easy an opportunity to get
in yeah harder to get in you know you
want to make it as hard as you can for
them to get in fortunately thankful to
um our State Rep Danny Perez he just
appointed me to our uh immigration
enforcement Council okay we have what
you call a 287g program in our jail and
we have six correctional officers and
one sergeant that are uh cross certified
with ice so if we bring in um an illegal
immigrant into our jail they interview
them they do an entire investigation and
determine uh through ice which ones are
going to be held on Ice detainer to be
removed from the from the country this
year so far we already have
104 104 so far that are are in on ice
detainers and we’ve interviewed several
where are they from nicely Mexico okay
interesting yep most people think like
people coming over the border of Mexican
but it’s changed really it’s it’s an
international thing these days it is we
even we have we have Haitians we’ve had
some um we’ve had just the gamut but the
large majority is from Mexico or Central
America okay well the CH andv parole
program just stopped Cuba hating
Nicaragua Venezuela where they just fly
him in directly yeah I’ve lived all over
the world it’s strange to me how you
want to come to America but not fully
byy in
cuz you keep everybody segmented right
and when you keep everyone segmented off
and doing their different things it’s
harder much harder to get along yeah
agreed and I was saying off camera that
there are some towns as of late that
have had huge uh immigration waves of
Haitians it’s nothing against Haitians
but there’s a cultural difference y like
in Haiti you don’t stop at the crosswalk
when someone you know walking across the
crosswalk right and if you came fresh in
to a new culture it’s not like you
change your ways immediately overnight
there’s no assimilation process it seems
so a lot of these towns like charoy
Pennsylvania where they a lot have come
in and I think they’re working in the
chicken factories that’s a whole another
story you disrupt the the cultural
balance there just of values and it’s
not a racism thing like you’re saying
it’s like a values issue first of all
that word is way overused racism yes way
overused okay how does it make you feel
when you hear it pisses me off um
because one if you’re going to say
something like that and if you’re going
to if you’re going to tag someone with
that you better be able to prove it and
you better be be know what you’re
talking about because it’s a serious
allegation and I think people just use
it now because because they know it can
ruin a person right so what they do is
they go up and clear in first and make
sure that there’s no violence because
some of these guys are not nice guys
imagine if you’re in your house and you
see all your guys coming to the door
you’re like oh my yeah this doesn’t look
good and so just to finish up on that
conversation it’s like when someone uses
an exclamation point at the end of every
sentence or it says I love you all the
time I mean if it’s not your
mom so then when it really pops up and
it’s something real you’re like it’s
like the come like the boy cried wolf
yeah and I can tell you these guys for
example these guys spend more time doing
this kind of stuff than they do at home
in communities that struggle often times
but they get labeled time at times
with that word when it’s nowhere near
the truth nowhere near the truth this
doesn’t look like a struggling Community
the houses look pretty good yeah it’s
not it’s just it’s just that you might
have an outlier living in one of these
houses that could be problematic for
someplace somewhere else so walk me
through this the guys have to stay away
from the house yeah so typically what
they do is they’ll they’ll go they’ll
just form a little perimeter around the
house mhmm just in case something bad
starts happening and they’ll stay back
then if they make this contact with
somebody at the at the door they’ll call
out and Pastor Scott and the and the
commander will walk up and have a
contact or information discussion with
them after that’s over if no one’s there
or if no one answers the door which
sometimes happens we leave that letter I
wrote that letter probably in 2016 oh
you wrote that oh yeah we leave that
letter
leave a phone number on that on that
letter M and then they can call
back you want to get out and talk to him
there said he’s going to call back so no
one was home did they answer the door no
so they didn’t answer so in a situation
like that when they don’t answer either
they’re not there or they don’t want to
answer they’ll come home and they’ll
find that letter they don’t have to
answer though right cuz there’s no
warrant for their arrest nothing no we
review every every shooting that happens
in Jacksonville every week if your name
shows up one week as being around when
someone was shot so you’re getting a
shooting a cuz you got a little over 50
last year so you’re getting one they
they space out like that I’m just
talking about shooting I’m not talking
about a murder oh gotcha gotcha I’m
talking about a shooting so we we track
all that stuff how many shootings are
you getting a
week Garen do you know that number right
off hand no sir okay I can tell you how
many we’ve had this we handful I’ve got
fentel number too the narcotics
Lieutenant is really questioning me why
I’m asking him these
questions so according to our our
narcotics
detectives per ounce of fentanyl it’s
going for about $1,100 to $1,400 on the
streets for a gram of fentanyl here it’s
$80 to $120 okay and a gram would be
like a small pill it would be but it’s
enough to kill somebody right but that’s
crazier Phoenix that would be two bucks
so close to the board that’s what it is
yeah they don’t have to push it through
the interior so if you get that price up
to that $80 up to $800 then who’s
affording it right sure it’s going to
become a designer drug at that
point so we’re going to another place
right now right Y and this is your
design this whole program here yeah I
largely got it from someplace else but
we instituted it how many doors have you
been to I knocked on 450 doors myself um
how how about the organization over a
thousand we’ve done this over a thousand
times since 2016 that’s every Thursday
not picking names out of a phone book
but picking real people y that we know
are involved in things that they should
not be involved in and try to get them
to do something different how many how
many take the
offer what percentage gar 30% take the
offer 30% strong 30% 45 to 50% call back
that’s why the phone is on my lap right
now because what it happened is we’ll
leave the me the letter at the door and
we’re not worried about it cuz they will
call back some neighbors are going to
say you had a bunch of police officers
there and they’ll see the letter and
they’ll call back out of curiosity and
um from there usually about 30% take the
services and change their life number
one um success rule we have is they’re
not shooting each other and they’re not
getting shot at and then they have
respect for law enforcement and accepted
job or mostly um driver’s license issues
and um also we go as far as we
relocating relocated 39 people already
to try to change their lives but um it’s
a very very successful program or we
like to say initiative this program is
come and go but this stays as long as
I’m around it’s going to be here but
we’re going into one of our most
struggling areas in the city has been
for many many years would you call this
the hood is that fair to say yep you’re
good with calling things the hood some
people like saying the hood some people
don’t I mean it is what it is the rapper
say it the uh the movies say it why is
it any different when we say it we just
call it like we see it so you got the
bars on the Windows obviously yeah this
is kinight kinight and everyone knows
about kinight so in Jack this would be
like don’t go to kinight at night yeah I
mean there’s been that reputation and
some great people living here I always
want to say that there there are amazing
people that live here and that’s with
every segment of town yeah but
unfortunately sometimes you have the
criminal element they don’t care about
anything but themselves
and they make life miserable for
everyone else we just ripped the doors
off I think these ones in a Narcotics
raid huge huge narcotics operation came
in with the SWAT team so a lot of this
crime is happening happening in a few
zip codes would you say like most of the
homicides in in Jacksonville see we’re
not we’re not showing the nice
neighborhoods obviously no not not yet
and I’m a big believer Peter yeah if you
get enough people in a community that
are tired of the issues because they
have to own it also right we can fix a
lot of problems because I think it’s
worth it if we can save a life can I go
on the street oh yeah all right let’s do
that I don’t have a zoom lens here it’s
like some dots in the
distance yeah this is um having a
probably pretty deep conversation with
him right now so Garland knows this
world you know yeah he knows it lived in
the New York equivalent of this mhm you
know the tendency is for most people and
I get it cuz cuz they don’t live in our
world yeah they want to continue to just
reach reach reach when at some point you
have to say Okay well the we’ve tried
the reaching part until he says screw
yall I don’t want to be involved in that
and then his life changes
drastically Garin how’d it go it went
good went good well he was very nervous
he was nervous very I wonder why well
that’s what we want we want you to know
that if you don’t do right as the
sheriff been quoting for the longest
there is Con consquences but I told him
I have two rules I tell everybody we
file 1100 of these two rules is don’t
ever lie to me and number two don’t
trust me cuz I don’t trust you let’s
build a relationship the next phase is
he calls this number it’s 24 hours when
he call it we come back with Community
Support people and we do an intake cuz
we don’t know what he needs we’re not
going to force anything on him I love it
when they make contact making contact is
good because it shows the impact right
and no one can ever say we don’t care
about what is we’re doing or about about
the young men in our community cuz I
want to I want to tell you quite
honestly I believe what we face in
communities especially in our black
communities all across this country is
almost a genocide right it doesn’t
appear that many people care about it
but no nobody cares more people died
last year in Black America than
civilians died in the war in Ukraine
right and here’s and here’s what’s wild
about that you hear politicians all over
the place talk about white supremacy
right being the danger the most
dangerous part of what’s going on in
America where are they living are they
not paying attention to what’s happening
do they not even care they’re in they’re
in their everyone’s in their bubble and
if you’re not out here exposed to this
you can be naive right 100% I guess
that’s why 100%
so I make enemies when I say stuff like
we have to look inside of our
communities and pay attention to what’s
happening inside of our communities
everybody gets riled up about a police
shooting yep which happens very
statistically very very very few very
little at a time but this doesn’t happen
just every once in a while these these
murders that take place in the inner
cities across this country yeah this the
statistics are crazy and it’s a lot of
the young guys yep that’s the problem
and so my simple solution and I’ve had
this conversation with many people look
a lot of 40 40y olds are not going to
change their ways or older like the
older you get the less likely
statistically so you got to go at the
kids as much as you can with with the
resources with the way out right because
look in New York City there actually
have more hope if they look at it
objectively than the kid in Appalachia
here’s what I mean you’re in Brooklyn or
the Bronx you take that metro into
Manhattan you’re working a good job
maybe you’re working at a nice
restaurant you’re a young kid you’re
working but you’re making good money
you’re making your own money versus
those guys out in the middle of nowhere
there’s no economy around to go work
that’s right shut down everything’s done
a lot of people need to know that
there’s hey man
you all right you
good A lot of people need to know the
opportunity like they can it’s a
mentality right and so when BLM was
going off in Vermont and there was like
the one black kid in high school and the
teacher sent me the video of them like
like having a BLM like
somber uh dance or something whatever it
was like oh I’m s like you’re doing the
worst thing for that kid you’re you’re
taking that kid’s agency telling him he
can’t make it in this world and in a way
by doing so you’re controlling them
versus saying hey if anyone ever says
something racist tell them to f off
they’re losers and the world is ahead of
you you can make whatever you want in
this world in this country you can make
what you want here’s what I tell people
this is you know this is this is Black
History Month and instead of listening
to people tell you you can’t do
something in 2025 America you can do
anything you want to do as long as you
prepare yourself and you have the mental
capacity to be able to do so I can’t be
rocket scientist I’m not smart enough
not everybody’s going to be in the NBA
not everybody’s going to be in the NFL
but you can do everything anything that
you want to do in the United States of
America which is why it’s the greatest
place on the planet there’s no place
better than here and and I would invite
anyone who says that there is go live
there go live to the place that you
think is better no you won’t leave you
won’t leave because you recognize you’re
just playing a game but the most
insulting thing to me is for someone to
tell me or a young person they can’t
accomplish something because of their
skin color
that’s wrong it’s absolutely wrong maybe
that was there was a time like that
there was yeah but but
2025 I got I started here in
1991 maybe um someone in the Northeast
I’m just you know picking an example
here I’m not saying everyone thinks this
way at all but they think oh the South
racist no no South’s not racist I mean
there are racist elements and racist I
was say this here’s what I’m going to
say racism exists there are racist
people but the system as a whole is not
a racist system the South to label the
South as racist is crazy I was elected
in this city right I was elected by
people who saw me and they thought that
I would do a good job they gave me an
opportunity and it wasn’t just all black
folks or Hispanics it was a it was a mix
of people all over this all over this
community what shows you that the myth
that people can’t succeed is wrong and
it irritates me it’s not because they
can’t read I know people say that it’s
more simp around choices you have a
choice you want to make my wife grew up
in some of these neighborhoods just like
this but my wife decided a long time ago
that she wasn’t going to be a statistic
yeah you hear people say that I don’t
have the same opportunity you do have
the same opportunity here’s what I’ll
say you don’t have the same circumstance
we don’t all start at the same place
there’s people that have to start here
which is tough right there’s people that
start in middle class families right the
opportunity is there for no matter who
you are because this is America yeah the
the circumstances are a lot different
you can go to Community College I did
that’s what I did I put myself to un
college and university so I went to
Community College at first cuz I could
afford it Y and then I got myself
through a state school no not everyone
gets a Ferrari not everyone can go to
Harvard it’s just the way it goes right
but I’ll never own a Ferrari yeah and
and but that that’s not your number one
value in life you’re getting purpose in
your work and
I think the internet has made it tough
on younger Generations where they think
they have to have all these things right
but the true thing should be like find
your way and what interests you what you
want to do in this world like you found
your
purpose yeah of course what is this
music is this drill no that was uh I
think that that sounded like
Tupac yeah that’s two oh yeah sorry but
he’s got a speaker on the outside of his
car which is illegal which is illegal is
all get out but people would say that
we’re you’re profiling no you can’t
don’t put speakers on the outside of
your car don’t over tint your windows
don’t do that cuz then you give me a
reason to stop you if if an officer says
put says put your hand on your steering
wheel mhm you do it yeah of course why
not and if and if and if they pulled you
over for wrong reason let the law shake
it out right 100% yeah because it will
yeah especially down
here what’s up man hey I feel to be
hire more white National than any state
say say one more time how does it feel
to hire more white National from any
state why don’t you check their tattoos
how does it feel to hire more white
nationalist I don’t hire white
nationalists check their tattoo hey you
know this though can I tell you this no
that do you want me to check your
tattoos before I hire you I don’t have
huh well you shooting people but just
not obeying your words like they they
follow can I ask you a question yes you
ask me a question in 2024 how many
people did we shoot how many people did
you shoot how many people did
Jacksonville [ __ ] jacksonv still putting
their hands on people no no wait wait
wait wa wa in the counter right now
getting beat up got punch all in my head
man just because I wouldn’t pull my go
out my mouth that wasn’t that wasn’t
your statement I I asked you how many
people have y’all killed how many how
many people have we shot in um
2024 you tell me youself you tell me me
seven that’s seven too many no that’s 7
too many man we shouldn’t have to get
shot for being pulled over have to being
shot for being black get shot for being
pulled over man most of the time and you
never get shot for being you never get
shot for being black real hey I voted
for you I appreciate it I voted for you
man and then you think you think this is
helping our community you got you
bringing milit you know why we’re out
here you you bringing military style Tas
wait wait do you want to listen or you
want to talk you want to listen or you
want to talk I’m just saying no wait
wait wait you got if we going to have a
if we going to have communication though
if you don’t hear no no but you got to
have communication can I get out I don’t
know I needan no har yeah come on I get
my name cig a too I know a lot of your
officers know me y’all have military
style coming in civilian neighborhoods
and for y’all be talking about y’all
helping y’all don’t know nobody
birthdays around here y’all don’t do
nothing for our community besides this
and y’all claiming that it’s help the
same people that y’all soall calling bad
is the people that know all the little
Tri birthdays that supply all the food
around here that pay all the bills you
know why cuz we our own little Community
we don’t ask for help y’all don’t give
us none we don’t get no food stamps we
don’t everything that we do on around
here these houses we HT we work hard for
it the best way we can because stuff
like this messing our records up for
Life stuff that I did at 16 made me a
felony for Life mhm what’ you do with 16
I I it was it was a gun I was you had a
gun had a gun okay um so like that mess
up is it my turn is it my turn you can
talk now you please give me my turn okay
you talk all right you know why we came
here mhm there’s a young man over there
that we recognized had some issues mhm
right right we didn’t come here to
arrest him cuz if we wanted to arrest
him he came out to talk to us we just
would arrested him what we want to do is
we want offer we want to offer him a way
out but these guys right here they’re
here to make sure that these civilian
not say all Poli no no wait wait no I’m
no wait wait you made a bunch of
statements cuz you’re got me on video
which I don’t mind yeah because yeah for
one my tell me the video every time I
around y’all and your people should know
that right now they know me no that’s
fine you talking that’s fine I don’t
mind the video I got a guy do video
right there video is fine so you made a
statement a sherff man no no that’s what
I’m saying video yeah so you made a
statement there but you don’t even know
why we’re here okay all right so we want
to talk why y here most of the time I’ve
been here for 40 years hold on hold on
you talked about today so today we’re
here because we’re talking to a young
man cuz we want to see him change his
life cuz we don’t want to see him lose
it okay and we don’t want to see him
locked up in the prison system right
when he don’t really have to be cuz
prison ain’t no place where people
belong but you ear prison no no race you
earned prison you can’t
law yeah well we it’s all laws that we
all got it’s all laws that we all got to
follow find nobody around here that’s
bringing in drawers you need that they
got a airplane or a ship we knocking
them off too you a been watching the
news huh you a been watching the news no
they show them not cuz we not bring
nobody over here bring we’ve been
knocking them off can’t afford to bring
we’ve been knocking them off here in
Jacksonville somebody bringing it over
here they you look like you affording
pretty nice it’s a nice car read my book
my book is on Amazon it’s called self
therapy uh the kamay M story that’s you
know you might have seen that on the
movies on
but my book just dropped it’s on Amazon
you her daddy yes I’m daddy self y make
sure you read my book make sure y get
that on everybody read my book it’s
better than the liftime story I promise
you you know what I’m saying I’m just
trying to you know get like you know let
you know what’s going on around here I
mean y’all do y’ jobs and all that but
the track tactic and how these people
running up on us with ARs man who y’all
think y’all got out here man we not kill
like we we don’t kill each other and
stuff like that we take care of each
other why is so aggressive like towards
it’s it’s not just the people y’all
going at it’s the neighborhood you know
what I’m saying people fearing even must
come over here my my my wife mother and
father but what they see on the news
they’re afraid must see daugh we not
like by police but what the news
portraying us ass and by the police we
not like that we human like we just like
when I tell y’all we just like y’all we
want to eat we want we got kids we want
to feed that our kids we just want to
live like we just want to just live we
don’t want be messed with we don’t want
to mess with nobody we’re not going to
come in no other neighborhood try to
take y’all stuff or and un steal from
other people we don’t we not into none
of that we just want to live the we can
if you can help us here here here with
it here’s how you can help me Mr AK okay
get the dope boys from living around
here stop tell them stop selling dope do
that for me tell stop bring no no no
wait hold on hold on that’s stop I tell
you what I tell you no you want I
thought you said we I thought you said I
thought you said going to talk we’re
going to talk okay I I do I I this is
not this is not your platform we’re
having a conversation the conversation
goes two ways you talk I talk you talk I
talk so it’s my turn okay my turn is you
stop Jokers from selling dope around
here where they’ve been selling for 40
years cuz I’ve been around here for 33
of them all right stop that all right
stop having people call us that need us
cuz we everybody calling for what no no
no no no wait wait wait wait wait wait
wait no no I’m not telling the lie if
people call if people call us way what
what they op people what’s opt bunch of
options what is that what’s their option
A bunch of options can you help can you
come and and help these people get
options can you help show us a better
way can you come help get man this is
2025 America come on man but that means
nothing we still live it means
everything no you ain’t man you still in
the same Constitution that they wrote
long time ago check this out can you so
can you as the shf tell the I tell you
people stop can you as a chef come back
and help these people get where they
need to be no matter what
right now you and your people no wa wait
wa come back show us no listen we we
we’ve been looking you talk more than
you listen that’s what the problem is no
you not listen no no how can you let me
ask you a question let me ask you a
question how can you be shown a better
way if you won’t even listen to Somebody
how can we be like I’m trying to help
you okay that’s why we came here to talk
to him here’s what I’m saying what is
our op you talk more than you listen we
got to we got to share option is don’t
do wrong what can what is right with Fon
you can only do so much are you
listening yeah I’m listening I got a
cousin right now I got a cousin right
now we’re in the federal prison for
drugs help some of these boys get fed
you gonna listen you gonna listen to me
or you gonna just keep overt talking me
this is what our issue is you can’t
communicate cuz you don’t want to have a
a conversation I’m not intelligent
enough to communicate while both of us
talking that’s what you said I didn’t
say that come on man let’s not pay tell
let’s Okay I this question here what is
the option man how can they become F
can’t answer the question you won’t let
me answer the question okay now that’s
show now I’m waiting on that question so
I I got two friends two of them one’s a
cousin one’s a friend one went to prison
for second degree
murder he’s out guess what he owns a
Zach be he owns it second person second
person went to federal prison for
selling drugs he owns a business and
he’s building houses so it’s it’s
possible but you have to be willing you
have to be willing to take somebody cuz
we I I told you we came here to talk to
a young man over here about some issues
that he’s having not to put him in jail
right and we we’ve this over a thousand
times in 10 years but the biggest thing
for me is tell young people that they
can make it don’t tell them that the
system is against them because it’s not
always we always keep up our prop our
kids up what can they do to make a
better I just told you I’m talking to
you about it wat it’s a pleasure to meet
you my brother to everybody no
disrespect you know what I’m saying
sometimes y’all have to know the other
side man you got to know the other side
ain’t nobody ask me a question I’m
trying to give you the answers but it’s
hard for you to listen to the answers
because you know why cuz they don’t line
up with what you want to believe man cuz
see I know the stuff that you talking
about it it ain’t helping us Man this
ain’t this ain’t you think this you
think this this is that’s nothing man
man you got Generations that man just
man you’re going at the wrong way man no
I’m not you are that’s not you you’re
going at it theong here’s what you do
then feed the people man they won’t do
the crap here’s what you do you want to
get rid of it here’s what you do it’s
somebody going to come up behind them
here’s what you do not listening people
it take them Father still to be here
feed the people man they the father got
get out in the
streets got to get out the streets bro
throw throw a bone man they won’t do it
you got to get out the streets you got
to get out the streets think you’re
going to stop generation and and ples
coming iny if if you know if you know
that you going to get go to prison if
you get caught doing something when it
your family they don’t care that’s not
how you feed your family if you stop it
here they going to go where you stay at
to get that money not listen feed the
people you’ll stop it all you’ll stop
you you stop the drug all that you feed
the people you’ll be a hero I need you
to be here what here’s what I need you
to be ghetto and you’ll be hero for
stopping the drugs I need you to be I
need you to be an inspiration to the
younger generation I well I do this all
day long no but you’re talking to them
about the wrong stuff man I’m not going
to tell them not especially nobody a get
nothing all right appreciate you man
good talk
drug baggy what do you think was in
there or tough
say
crack don’t man hey is what it is he
said that they got to continue to sell
drugs to eat yeah he don’t he doesn’t
want to hear anything else you know how
many times I’ve heard that same
story Bunch Bunch so he’s going
victimhood narrative yeah oh 100% he’s
living in victim role and like it’s all
it’s all our fault the Govern government
the Constitution the same Constitution
that kept us in slavery that’s that’s
what he said so the solution to this
there’s no easy solution no easy
solution but I think you take one Hood
in America you drop in the resources
money alone doesn’t do it at all CU if
someone’s not working midday on a
Tuesday and you give them money they
just buy more alcohol and get nicer cars
that’s all that does it does so you have
to come in with job training with I
don’t know what you come in like what
what is the solution to this cuz I’ve
been it’s a long-term thing it’s not
going to work in a fouryear cycle it’s
like you put 20 years into this
neighborhood give it a a lot of focus
and effort and in 20 years you’re going
to get a result right yeah and then you
you but the biggest thing is Peter I got
to say this you got to have the
neighborhood buying you got to have the
community buying yeah are these ladies
like here one
person hey there hey ladies how y’all
doing all
right good to see you good to see you
all right
okay so you got some Buy in here yeah so
here’s here’s what you got though you’ll
have 70% great folks that want it to
change but you saw the difference in the
groups just in that exchange we just had
yeah you have this guy who probably was
hot cuz I can smell the weed in this car
y maybe I’m naive here but I just think
it needs a lot of attention and um I
have a friend right I have this
conversation with him and he’s like you
know what those people want to live like
that fine let them be just I just don’t
want to live anywhere near them right
they’re going to live like that sell
drugs whatever I’m keeping my kids away
from that and I’m like cool until you’re
on the 95 and someone’s all hopped up on
whatever and runs into your daughter now
it becomes your problem yeah but here
here’s what here’s what happens the
sheriff’s office is a tool we are a tool
for the community to use to help solve
problems not solve them because we we
cannot solve generations of issues in
small neighborhoods yeah it’s impossible
who just can’t do it you have to be
willing to stand up and say there’s
something going on across the street you
don’t have to tell everybody that it’s
you that’s saying it but there’s
something going on across the street
that we don’t want in our
neighborhood then we come we address the
issue you see us address it and then you
go one by one and you start telling us
about the problems in the neighborhoods
that are creating issues for you and we
clean those issues up and the more you
do that the more people realize that you
won’t tolerate certain things in your
communities
and don’t get mad at us when we have to
do a search Warner on the house where
drugs are being sold and people get
arrested for it that guy that you talked
to for a while he’ll say the officer was
beefing with me and blah blah blah he’ll
probably call cuz they all know who I am
he’ll probably put it on Facebook and
he’ll probably put some expletives in it
and say that the Uncle Tom thing gets
thrown on about me a lot you know he’ll
probably say something about like that
he calls you Uncle Tom everybody does a
lot of people do Sheriff’s Office
running for Sheriff’s it’s a partisan
race I’m a conservative I’m a republican
you’re not supposed to be that I’ll tell
you another story the city of
Jacksonville you’re not supposed to be a
republican Sheriff here I’m not supposed
to be a Republican and be black yeah but
this last election more blacks voted for
for the Republican party than in a long
time yep listen to this yesterday they
had a black history event um Black
History Month event the city of
Jacksonville did I’m only the second
elected black sheriff in the history of
the city I didn’t get
invited what does that tell you that
tells you that we love
you if you told a party line if you do
what you’re expected to
do okay what’s the story with this guy
this guy’s a gang member from 21st Audi
he’s out of prison and he wants to try
to do right we got a lot of pictures of
him in social media with guns he got a
pretty lengthy teral record they must
have made
[Music]
contact made contact is that how often
is that one out of one out of four or
something a lot of these yeah we’re
doing well we’re doing well ma’am you
are very fashionable I got to say oh
well you are very styling I got to say
look at you matching like that those
earrings to the Dress pop just stay
around Okay so how things been for you
eye opening but it’s listen I was
retired before I came back to do this
yeah it’s the most rewarding job I’ve
ever had it really is I’ve done a lot a
lot of jobs but so when you see someone
poke through like they actually make it
to the other side it’s amazing huh oh
absolutely I mean it’s gratifying
absolutely gratifying and I’m just
really happy that we’re doing this kind
of work and it’s coming out of the
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office from are
you from here I grew up here so yeah I
would say that yeah you know what I love
about you guys I’ve never been up to
this part of Florida there’s like that
old world Southern Charm people are very
friendly it’s not down like that down
there look they say the more south you
go the more North it gets more of the
northeasterners coming down snowbirds
that sort of thing yeah well you know
Jacksonville is considered the gateway
to the South did you know that I didn’t
know that because I mean we’re right
there where we connect to Georgia yeah
and they call us actually
South Georgia absolutely I’m not kidding
you so right now Garland is presenting
that young guy with the the offer
exactly but let me go so I can stand by
him yeah go for
it so from your experience what’s this
looking like so far it’s been a great
day so I’m the lieutenant over the gang
unit and what’s called the CPR and unit
so what the sheriff didn’t tell you is
back in 2016 he’s the one that started
this program I got that out of him but
what he also started was getting
everyone together to start with a
positive proactive mindset to policing
yeah and I love bragging on him because
compared to being told for years and
years we are the murder capital of
Florida oh because of his vision Capital
you pull it up Jacksonville has always
been for years either listed as number
one number two per capita the murder
capital of Florida okay because of what
he started in 2016 that mentality of
putting this division together that he’s
done
that’s where we had 59 murders last year
half 57% down from the year before
that’s great I’ve been in law
enforcement 29 years I get people say
you can’t arrest your way out of a crown
problem yeah you can you just have to
arrest the right people one of the
things that he made sure that we did is
getting in these communities and not
doing not going out and just giving
everyone tickets and putting everybody
in jail for those minor offences
concentrate on the people that are
actually hurting the communities and
that’s the message that he put out and
all of us have adopted it and it’s it’s
been absolutely amazing so hopefully
with this intervention that kid uh he
doesn’t take the action of killing
someone in the future or something and
changes the course can come out like the
last gentleman was like hey we need help
you know how many services are out there
yeah that’s what a lot of people don’t
know they think there’s not help but
there’s a lot of around the country
how’s he putting it on the
sheriff here here’s my question who gave
him Services yeah he didn’t get Services
he pushed through it how how’d that go
Brenda excellent he was very attened and
you noticed the mom was there so that
that that helps right and it helps that
I’m there mother to mother we have that
same heart for our children yeah you got
any more compliments you want to give me
while I’m standing here like you going
you can we call those bell bottoms or
what are we doing down
there but they work it’s a cross between
uh fashion and business and then we’re
doing a nice long belt says you know I’m
elegant I’m styly in the hair come on
let’s just say the obvious that’s
fire you can’t leave I’m going to lock
you up so you can like provide this kind
of energy for us all right I’m loving
it this one is 16 years old burglary
auto theft written threats and criminal
mischief stuff on social media is
posting with a gun his buddy running
inside the house go inside the
house he’s juvenile so we want to have a
parent said that uh his mom’s at the
store he’s down with his down with his
friends down here he leaves a couple
houses down he’s got an audience now cuz
he’s got a couple of his friends so now
it’s just you know to be able to get to
that person is that’s a better oneone
when there’s an audience the bravado
comes out so then it becomes a joke he
doesn’t because you’re not listening
you’re just wanting to show
out fig out who
you let’s leave the letter for the mom
let’s leave the
letter mom’s not home okay he’s juvenile
so we want her to be here cuz we were
going to show her some things that she
needs to see no telling when she’ll be
back see you leave the letter do you
guys follow up on this if he gives yeah
we’ll probably come back cuz I don’t
know if he’s going to give it to her
it’s for her right
appreciate y’all man yes sir thank you
for coming thank you for coming thanks
for the hard
work pleas I’ve never seen you before
good to see you man sir who else did I
get you ready yes sir I’ll take another
appreciate y’all man hey y’all keep it
up stay safe um six block six block
cannot function yes sir ever so don’t
let them yes sir all right cuz little
Brion then they got a shootout yesterday
day before yesterday day before
yesterday yeah we got to cut them out
so let’s let’s uh put the pressure on
them cats all right y’all need anything
let me know we we get it done all right
appreciate y’all y’all be safe all right
you too thank
you so it’s tough though these guys I
mean how are they going to and they’re
doing nothing but selling drugs and
drinking we’ve really been hanging
around just a really small portion of
Jacksonville there’s a historic part of
um Springfield that you’ll see some of
these houses that they’ve really done a
lot of work to and they’re really
nice this is called what Brooklyn this
place has really changed tremendously
over time this is like Five Points
Riverside area parks business yeah so
environment means so much huh yeah oh
yeah where you grew up like anyone can
make it but it does help to be in the oh
yeah better starting game for sure I
also think that works if it’s
determination an absolute desire to find
yourself in a different set of
circumstances and focus your energy on I
don’t want this for my for my life and
this is what I I learned this from my
wife I don’t want this for my life um
well I don’t want for this to be my my
Norm yeah and your wife broke through oh
yeah and there and and see that should
be the message right the message should
be more more focused on your ability to
make it now she is the director of um
investigators at the state attorney’s
office okay my wife spent probably 10
years buying drugs undercover and
narcotics for G gso she’s very good at
it it’s a new park oh look at that nice
so they’re really putting in a big
effort to get people down here
yeah it’s a river walk and you can just
walk over the bridge when did
Jacksonville start turning around a bit
it’s and it’s always been a great place
it’s just a place that not many people
know about and then when you hear about
it this is what used to frustrate me
about our local media like there was a
celebration when we crossed a 100
homicides in Jacksonville they it’s like
they were celebrating and I’m like why
do you consistently want to destroy the
reputation of such a great place they
can’t call us a murder capital FL
anymore who’s taking that title now I
don’t know I don’t even look now um I
just want to make sure it’s not us
so basically I told our 911 dispatch
just to call me today with anything
unfortunately a shooting just came in in
a in an area known for for violence and
drug activity it’s early on but looks
like potentially 23 rounds
fired so a lot of gunfire some straight
bullets out there at least one person’s
shot right now so obviously it’s all
hands on deck going to that
[Music]
are you working the 18 right now yes we
possibly have it on camera and then we
have the suspect they immediately put
out the suspect vehicle on day shift it
crashed out not far from the 18 they
have them in custody um we’re kind of
working now cuz obviously when a lot of
times when one person starts shooting a
bunch of people start shooting so
there’s there a couple other shooters
that were trying to figure out where
they went now you okay with me recording
all this yeah yeah we’re good so the
call is going to come in on the screen
for us um we our gunshot detection
system shot spotter is what’s going to
be alerting us first that we had an
incident and we got 18 rounds at 50/20
which um unfortunately as of late has
been a hot spot for us so the shot
spotter tells you how many shots go off
basically that’s what that does yes with
uh and it pinpoints where they
okay approximately come from so and it’s
going to tell you um sometimes with
accuracy if it was a moving shooter
versus someone in a vehicle high powered
rifle anything like that so this is the
first shot spider that came in that was
18 rounds uh categorizes high
capacity and then the next one’s going
to be five rounds
so that one indicates to me that’s a
little this is not really my area of
expertise but kind of sounds like a
different weapon to me we have a lot of
Partners in the community that have
given us access to their cameras through
connect Dall so Kimberly is working
district 6 today which is where this 18
occurred so she’s going to be going
through all the footage trying to
backtrack now and make sure all our
suspects are in custody lots of moving
Parts she she’s got the most pressure on
her right now to get all that
information to the detective
okay was there some interesting stuff
over there yeah I can’t show it okay
okay that’s the only thing I can’t show
but Kimberly’s on that the real time
crime camera caught the incident these
analysts are amazing um and I don’t just
say that because to be able to pick up
the phone and call up here and say run
this time or this incident or they may
have even been watching at the time and
see it and make contact right away about
what’s going on and then catching the
bad guy in the car they were able to get
a suspect description give it to
officers so by the time those officers
are going on scene they already know
what they’re walking into to some extent
so it’s a it’s a very big help with
officer safety um they know we’re giving
them the direction that the shooters ran
so they know when they’re going in okay
this could be where they’re coming from
what they’re wearing um if they you know
if they dropped a weapon where your
victim is so they were able to locate
the victim transport the victim the one
of the suspects I believe uh crashed out
so when the analyst heard the
description of a vehicle that crashed he
connected those dots and realized hey
that’s going to be the vehicle that was
involved in um the 18 so then he was
able to advise we’re getting on the
radio with information like that right
away so he was able to advise over the
radio the description they got them in
custody he ended up when he crashed out
I believe throwing the gun into the
ditch possibly so so it’s a lot of
moving Parts you’re walking in right in
the in the heat of a yeah In the Heat of
a moment so right now that was the
detective calling up anything new we get
the detectives are like hey we want to
know send it to us immediately so right
now we’re kind of we start working
backwards after
officer safety is is you know that’s
secured all our officers are good our
victim is at the hospital um our primary
suspects in custody now we’re going to
work backwards make sure did we find all
the other parties involved you know
there could be more victims you never
know where they might self transport 18
shots is a lot right exactly yeah so you
just saw the power of the technology
unfortunately there was a shooting we
didn’t want one to happen for you but
there was one during your visit
unfortunately the person shot has now
died
but you saw the technology in action
so while you have all the officers
flooding the streets in the area you
also had the analysts and officers back
here they were able to track a car they
were able to make some arrests that
person’s going to come down to homicide
does that stuff uh do you get immune to
it or is it always sort of shocking
sometimes but then we have we do have
I’m very I’m painfully optimistic so we
do have uh lots of good things we see on
camera too you see people help each
other you see a crash and everyone’s
running to help the victim or um you
have these 18s but then
it there’s some type of I think comfort
in um the immediate maybe not closure
but we have a suspect in custody so
unfortunately you know someone someone
died but that’s immediate in my view
Comfort to that family that we have that
shooter now because of what we do
so you really want to build out the
media arm of the sheriff department here
it’s all part of it because if the
community sees what we’re doing got to
follow and if they buy into it then it’s
just going to help and it’s good for the
officers it’s good for the public to see
what their tax dollars are being spent
on it’s just good overall so typically a
office is not going to allow a camera in
these areas correct I never saw any of
this stuff when I was a reporter welcome
to the f
SL long
time how are you it’s good to see you
Peter nice to meet you nice to meet you
okay so I’m going to blur your face and
I’m not going to use your name right no
name no face yeah cuz we testifying
quite a bit of Trials over 20 years and
all of them oh we got you totally get it
I’ll walk in there with you yeah that’s
a gun that came in a little bit loaded
and I’m trying to a little bit loaded
half
loaded the cartridge is in the chamber
but it’s nose pointing to the breach
face so nothing’s going to happen anyway
it’s are are you good with guns
personally well I am a Firearms examiner
all right I’m saying you got to be good
this is a fum Hood this is where if we
get something with a biohazard like
bloody guns we clean them under the fum
hood and then see we work on certain
things like that so this is a crime gun
this is a crime gun made in Turkey
yeah what is that it’s a gers one gersan
what do you think of the Glock 19s
classic classic can’t go wrong with it
that’s what I got you can’t go wrong you
know a slide action shotgun just cck the
slide you know that’s the best home
protection the noise itself is you like
the sound of it you know if someone
hears you racking a shotgun a slide
action that’s what you want part of your
Marcal okay okay the sound is very much
a deterrent and then the sound right
after it takes care of
business Florida has stand your ground
correct yes yes so an intruder comes in
it’s a life-threatening event you can
shoot them there’s no duty to retreat
you have the right to defend your house
your family um from from someone that
wants to do you harm they come on your
lawn no I wouldn’t do the lawn unless
they’re coming on your lawn with bad
intentions like if they’re maybe holding
a AK or something then take care of
business break in your home it’s always
going to be in the homeowner’s benefit
okay and this is the laboratory we use a
comparison microscope here which is for
triaging we examine cartridge cases it
today all those casings will come in
here is that how that works no come in
the firearm lab will then look at all
the different calibers see if they come
from the same gun or different guns
separate them out put them through nin
and see if they match to any other
shootings in the region okay nin what is
that that that is the national
integrated ballistic Information Network
yes okay so not Nationwide it is
Nationwide yes gotta worldwide it is
actually worldwide worldwide okay it
links up crimes that you would never
have any idea that were linked together
okay we make get a shooting on one side
of town with a guy driving a white car
leaving the scene and you know we might
have another shooting you know on the
other side of town and a guy’s in a red
car but guess what those casings match
from those scenes so now you have two
different suspect vehicles um or even
two different description of people that
you would have no idea that those two
are related you traffic stop on an
individual um he has a gun on him and
he’s prohibited from carrying that gun
the gun will come here that gun will be
test fired and then you will see we’ve
had guns come back to murders aggravated
batteries robberies just on a simple
traffic stop and then you have a very
good place to start cuz that gun came
off of you it comes off of your
waistbands you have a lot of explaining
to do at that point of why is this gun
used in a murder what’s amazing about
all this cuz we’re making it harder and
harder for you to commit crimes and get
away with it I would advise you if
that’s what you want to do don’t come to
Jacksonville and do it we want to rid
Society of you
actually you are saying you have a
breakthrough in another big case yep
they brought one over he end up
confessing and tell telling who else was
involved in the murder of 7-year-old
Brion that is a
huge huge relief has that been a long
ongoing case or it’s been three three
weeks a month someone killed a
seven-year-old seven-year-old yeah why
because they are cruel animals who don’t
care about the life of a
seven-year-old who was walking with
another kid who was the not a kid but a
young man man who was the actual
Target so instead of them holding up and
waiting till to get him alone or not
doing at all they decideed to open fire
killing a seven-year-old
child so what uh what’s going to happen
that’s life sentence um it could be
there a good chance that could be uh a
first-degree murder if that’s a
first-degree M murder they they stand
the opp they stand the chance of um
getting death penalty that’s completely
up to the
prosecutor U Melissa Nelson no pressure
in that job huh she handles it well
though hey how about doing some
work how we do that
he this is my chief of um patrol support
So helicopters dogs horses she runs all
that you have horses here yeah yeah
pretty big horses that’s a big operation
a lot goes on here a lot more than
people
know he’s this way sir that way yes
sir how you guys doing hey man how are
you doing well thanks Mar all right
Peter santanella nice to meet you
sir everybody is so you understand he’s
the director of Investigations and
homeand security he has our SWAT Team
all of our detectives and all that stuff
this is the under Sheriff who loves the
camera if you can probably see
um he does everything that got the hair
for it he does everything that I don’t
want to do um the mean Parts this is
Chief Parker who works directly for
director Romano he’s over investigations
this is JD stonco he’s the commander of
the homicide unit yeah um and uh a bunch
of other stuff Major Crimes doesn’t yeah
Major Crimes there it is but this is the
group this is where it all happens this
is where me him him we spent a large
portion of our career work in this
office well that’s this is L matina
she’s uh strategic adviser lawyer
prosecutor extraordinaire okay are you
okay with being on camera you look good
on camera sure you’re great okay you
look different than everyone else in
here yeah I do okay so how are things
going she shaved her beard this morning
I
did how are things going on your side of
things good well I I’m on this side at
the moment so I’m with JSO now but I
spend a whole bunch of time at the state
attorney’s office okay and I can’t stay
out of this office because I got to
scratch the edge okay what’s the edge
homicides it’s the highest highs and the
lowest lows really yeah so it’s a bit of
a rush too at the same time absolutely
yeah it’s it’s adrenaline dump for the
right reasons right I mean there’s
nothing better than getting Justice for
families that have lost the
greatest right but it’s
hard in the moments where you are
running up against a Breck law yeah okay
as in lack of evidence or the law or
what you know the hardest part I know
you’re talking to her right now but
knowing who did it and can’t prove it oh
yeah yeah yeah that’s and that happens
very often I mean the whole criminal
justice system is set up to benefit
defendants and the adage is it’s better
to let a guilty man go free than an
innocent man go to prison and while that
may be true it is heart-wrenching when
you know the person who committed this
atrocious act and there’s no
way so the guy today you had the long
conversation with or it wasn’t
conversation he spoke and yeah he was
telling me how the system was oppressing
him and he told you the meaning of life
basically yeah basically but you you
prosecuted him yeah it’s a family that
has had many touch points with the
criminal justice system one of the mom
was there she said mhm he need all the
help he can get
it’s always pretty good there’s so many
positive stories coming out of this
space and everyone thinks that law
enforcement that it’s you know
constantly dark and it it’s not I mean
exciting to come to work every day and
feel like we’re doing something we’re
pushing the envelope and I I mean I
really do think with this I agree
Administration we’ve set sort of the
gold standard for how things should be
run I mean I love the fact that we’re
doing this and
the doors are open and people are
finally seeing what yeah I mean
honestly CU if you don’t done if you
don’t tell your story someone else will
that’s what’s been going on see I
learned that a long time ago because
Media news networks aren’t going to let
you speak for an hour an hour and 20
minutes you’re not going to get that
exposure it’s going to be cut up to some
sort of narrative right they’re going to
come with a preconceived narrative
whatever that is they have to fill that
story y I showed up today with the
narrative is let’s let’s learn something
and you know I’ll tell you how it’s been
so you know how when we walk in the
realtime crime Center no not to them
they’re shocked and they’re scared oh
should we show that why not am by the
ncic information that’s fine you block
that out because we have to by law but
even when we walked into the little war
room over there oh our screens are open
he’s not videoing you but at the same
time this is how it’s been for many many
years and this is what I want to get
away from
because we not only did we do that with
the outside world don’t think the
outside world and news media is the only
ones we did that to ourselves there was
a time when I worked in homicide you
didn’t talk about your homicide cases to
anyone not even the policeman that
doesn’t serve you well because you could
be looking for something you need
something and somebody out here might
know about it you’re careful with how
you share it but you still share the
information and that was a big problem
in law enforcement for a long time let’s
just keep everything siloed got to keep
it a secret why it’s not secretive it’s
just well well you have to trust who’s
got Whoever has the etic has the power
that’s right I could put dark music put
voice over you know talk about how bad
everything is I can make this all look
terrible right I have that control as a
filmmaker Vic obviously trust me brought
me in cuz youve seen my work the
audience can agree disagree like dislike
that’s their that’s their opinion 100%
But at the end of the day I hope people
ask questions and think deeper on these
things that’s the only goal and listen
there’s people out there that when we do
our cibs critical incident briefing yeah
when we do those there’s people out
there that say oh they edited the video
there’s going to be people that’s always
going to say that but the point is what
they cannot say is that we’re not being
transparent we’re showing it to them you
don’t have to even like it the point is
is for people to know that we’re open
and then we’re giving them honest
information
this is you and your young days that’s
me when I was a Youngster and my bride
Garland’s a character huh I like this
shot here that’s That’s a classic that’s
funny so that guy is Brian key we call
him Ted lasso because he looks just like
um Jason sedus especially if you see him
up close but he’s a funny guy him and
Garland wanted to post that picture so I
said I got to have it so I kept
it all right Vic so I want to show the
audience a nice part of Jacksonville so
you and I are going to go there we are
the sheriff has to go Sheriff thank you
my pleasure that was awesome absolutely
man thank you for coming to see our our
great City and um learning about us yeah
showing everybody what what it is we do
there’s a lot involved we are a part of
this community we love it I have kids
here I have grandkids here so it’s a
beautiful thing sh all right thanks
appreciate
you what’s that noise so it’s twice a
day at 12:00 noon and that’s the 5:00
horn so old school when people didn’t
have have clocks or watches or anything
that’s when all the workers downtown
would get out that’s the Jack horn
that’s the Jacksonville
[Music]
horn okay so over a bridge different
neighborhood yep what is this called
This is River Road but it’s a historic
district it’s called San Marco I’ll take
you down here and then we’ll Circle back
so you can see this beautiful sunset
okay on the St John’s river St John’s
river is beautiful and look at all the
families out here people enjoying it
picnic dinner some people fish I mean
this home for us it’s an underdog City
and a lot of people love to hate on it I
think that’s the passion behind the hard
work the men and women of the agency put
in day in and day out is we want to
continue to see this city grow and
Thrive and improve and it’s a city that
has beautiful beaches and ample boating
activ ities and sports and family events
and great colleges and universities and
some of the best high schools in the
country and it just takes a few people
to spoil a reputation so yeah that’s
beautiful you know some of the
presidents have jogged down here I I
remember Bill Clinton joged down here
yeah it’s just environment means a lot
yeah in life you know being able to walk
around like this this is a true blessing
you know not worry about
things the shade from these oak trees I
mean it’s right oh this is
stunning and there’ll be bald eagles and
ospre and dolphins in the river
manatees well it was mostly the sheriff
today but you put this together so thank
you my pleasure thank you without you
this wouldn’t have happened appreciate
it appreciate you yeah thanks for coming
and one more thing let’s go over here
cuz there’s a beautiful Fountain one
more thing is that you guys have your
own YouTube channel we do Jack Sheriff
Jack Sheriff it’s a baby YouTube channel
it’s just starting out it’s growing
we’re gr doing well yeah we’re getting
there and you got just more local stuff
what’s going on here and some some big
viral videos like on drill drill music
right yeah so okay transparency is key
we put local national International
stories on there okay and we take you
inside the operations cuz we don’t have
anything to hide awesome what was great
about today for me was you know as
civilians we see officers on the street
and and driving around and pulling
people over you don’t see all the the
pieces to the puzzle the behind the
scenes that girl today I forget her name
you know you know Mission Control
looking at all the screens and the
forensics lady and all these people that
you know bring their skills together to
do what you guys do to keep Society so
you know it’s much better off than if
you weren’t there so it was great to see
all the pieces to the puzzle come
together you saw a lot yeah yeah saw a
lot you saw more than I’d probably say
any body’s seen well at least with us so
you’ve seen a lot now the audience has
to guys thank you for coming on that
Journey it’s part of a larger Florida
series and I’m taking all different
angles and perspectives on this state
it’s one of those big States 23 million
people a lot of stories lots of stories
yeah thanks guys for coming on that
Journey until the next one
[Music]