Post by Chuck McCue on Jan 31, 2022 16:03:14 GMT -5
From Jacksonville Beach Police Chief Gene Paul Smith.
One month into 2022, I hope this email finds you well. We had an incident-free New Year’s Eve and a relatively quiet January in the area of operations. We were cautious with the COVID-19 surge over the past month; however, we did not enact stringent measures to counter COVID as we had in the past. We realized that we must learn to live with the virus, so when we needed to accomplish a task, we weighed the costs versus benefits. We did have several cases, but thankfully the employees quickly returned to work, having endured only minor symptoms. We also had numerous officers on light duty with a mixture of duty and non-duty related health issues. This put us shorthanded at times, but on-duty staffing did not suffer. All of our employees stepped up and filled in. Since then, thankfully, many of our light-duty employees have returned to work.
For the past few years, we have been one of the few departments in the state, or possibly the country (based on sources), that has been consistently fully staffed with police officers. However, unfortunately at this time, we currently have two vacant positions, and no strong applicants/candidates. In addition, we also have three pending retirements in the next few months. We will be trying some new strategies in recruiting and processing of candidates in the future. We have also shortened our non-sworn applicant processing while still maintaining quality background steps. As I am sure you are aware, there are just very few Jacksonville Beach Police Department quality candidates (for sworn positions) out there.
We conducted three critical Mobile Field Force (crowd control) training days that included all sworn employees. We also held our 16th annual basic SWAT school at Camp Blanding. Jacksonville Beach instructors taught 41 students from around Florida in basic SWAT team operations. We receive many tangible and intangible benefits from conducting this class.
We conducted extensive planning for the 26.2 with Donna marathon which will be held on February 6. We also just received intelligence information that Orange Crush will be returning to Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach from March 11-13. We are currently gathering more information, but based on last year’s event, along with the target weekend coinciding with TPC weekend, a history of marginal weather in March, and no available public venues at the beaches, we anticipate minimal impact at this time.
We are moving into a post-COVID spring/summer for the first time in a few years. In 2019 (pre-COVID), we saw the highest service demands (calls for service, arrests, etc.) in recent memory that was clearly on an increasing trajectory. These increasing numbers flattened over the last two years despite large crowds and semi-normal lifestyles enjoyed in Florida. I am unsure if this plateau will continue, or if we will return to 2019 increased service demand levels. In either case, I feel we will be busy this spring/summer.
We have delayed CPA Class 48 temporarily due to COVID concerns. Usually, we hold the first class each year in January. We will announce the new class dates soon.
I have included the below links for some of the rash of police shootings lately from around the US. I thought these may be of interest. These occurred in the last 7 days.
Houston PD.
www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/01/28/texas-police-shootout-houston-flores-nr-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/top-news-videos/
Harris County (Houston). Killed by illegal immigrant with a long violent history. He never even got a chance to get out of his patrol car.
Also from Houston, a few minutes on bail reform.
www.fox26houston.com/whats-your-point/suspects-out-on-bond-have-killed-more-than-150-people-in-harris-county-whats-your-point
From NYPD, the widow speaks.
Kentucky Trooper shot.
Two St. Louis Officers shot.
Washington DC Officer shot.
Two weeks ago in New Mexico.
Five officers shot in NYPD this month.
Off-duty Officer killed in Cleveland.
Off duty LAPD officer killed, Feds take case away from local DA.
Milwaukee officer shot, offender out on bail…………..
www.breitbart.com/crime/2022/01/29/video-suspect-in-shooting-of-milwaukee-officer-was-out-on-bail/
Gene Paul N. Smith
Chief of Police
Jacksonville Beach Police Department
gsmith@jaxbchfl.net
904-247-6343