It appears that taxpayers in Jacksonville are going to pay for more police officers — whether they are needed or not.
The Finance Committee of the City Council approved the budget for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Aug. 10 without asking any relevant questions about the need for 40 new police officers requested by the sheriff and approved by the mayor.
As Eye on Jacksonville has noted, crime is down, arrests are down and calls for service are down. Duval County already has about as many officers per resident as other large counties in the state.
We asked the sheriff’s office about the discrepancy between a declining workload and a request for more manpower and got no answer, despite the sheriff’s pledge of openness and transparency.
The haphazard approach of the council is somewhat disconcerting. They are supposed to be the oversight on budgetary matters, not to rubber-stamp what is requested by every agency.
The other media apparently are not concerned. Most are liberal and only interested in the government spending as much money as possible.
The full council will take up the $7.7 billion city budget for 2023-24 on Sept. 26. It won’t be too late then to ask the multi-million question: why are more police officers needed?
