Jackson County Sheriff Talks About Officer Pay Increase While Leading Neighborhood Walk

On Saturday morning, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters led a Neighborhood Crime Prevention Walk. During the walk, he spoke with residents of Beacon Hills and Harbor and expressed his thoughts about the preliminary agreement reached by the police union and the city of Jacksonville to raise the starting pay for officers.

Waters and JSO have been organizing neighborhood crime prevention walks for over a year and a half. The most recent one happened away from Fort Caroline Road.

Waters noted the community’s deep appreciation for the opportunity to engage with law enforcement and witness their genuine commitment.

Latasha Hobbs has been making every effort to attend these walks. Two days after turning eighteen in 2017, she lost her son Maurice. Nothing has been taken in relation to his case.

“There is definitely an impact. I can give my son’s flyer to people in the community that I have never met before,” Hobbs remarked. They are mentioning Maurice’s name now. He and his flyers are being photographed, which they then post to social media. That is significant in every way. It all comes down to raising awareness. The key is for everyone in the neighborhood and around the world to utter his name.

Following a tentative agreement made earlier this week between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police that considerably increases the starting pay for police and prison personnel, more cops may soon be patrolling the streets alongside JSO.

In her 33 years with the organization, Waters remarked, “We have never seen an increase like this, and it is very much needed.” We were trailing behind agencies in our immediate vicinity and in several of Florida’s bigger cities. I applaud the mayor’s office and her team because I believe the mayor understood that. I applaud FOP.