The position of top cop will be open in the 2023 city elections, and with two left-wing Democrats already in the race, a no-nonsense Republican has filed.
Matt Nemeth says he is running “to protect the ideals and values we all cherish. Not Republican or Democrat values, but human values.”
Defunding the police? “We’ve seen that ideology at work and it has been a dismal failure,” Nemeth told Eye on Jacksonville. While he favors the responsible use of fiscal resources, he does not think cutting police budgets will lower crime rates.
A native of Dearborn, Mich., Nemeth has an MBA degree and has been in law enforcement for 34 years in Florida, 25 of them with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. He has served in many capacities including commander of the SWAT team and director of the Police Athletic League. Currently, he is chief of special events.
Nemeth is due to retire from the sheriff’s office Oct. 1.
People seem to like change, based on the popularity of term limits, and he thinks Jacksonville is ready for change at the sheriff’s office.
He had nothing to say about his Democrat opponents.
“I’m not running against anyone, but for everyone,” he said.
But other trendy “woke” methods of operating a police agency are not for him. He is opposed to civilian review boards, for example. “The sheriff is a duly elected constitutional officer, chosen by the electorate to manage the office. Why hand it back to an unelected body?”
There are likely to be other candidates before the distant election. But, already, voters have choices.
