Members of Jacksonville ICARE believe the Group Violence Intervention Program could be the key to reducing homicides in the city.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Members of the Jacksonville Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment (ICARE) are once again calling on Sheriff T.K. Waters to meet with them about the ongoing violence in the city. This was the fourth time the group has publicly called out Sheriff Waters in the last six months.
The group held a press conference on the steps in front of JSO headquarters on Monday morning. They started by laying 124 roses on a white heart to honor the victims of homicide in Jacksonville last year.
“We are here today because violence has claimed the lives of our families, friends, neighbors and members of our community,” the pastor of Saint Paul A.M.E. Church Rev. Willie Barnes said.
The group was hoping to meet with Sheriff Waters Monday morning to ask him to get involved with the National Network for Safe Communities.
Rev. Adam Gray, the pastor at Riverside Church at Park and King, said it is an organization that offers group violence intervention, boasting a reduction in homicides in cities like Boston and Indianapolis.
“The hope is you take all of those organizations and agencies that you’ve brought to the table, and you offer people involved in a life of violence a real way out, a real way to put down their guns and take up job training, take up a new and better life for their family, for their children more secure housing,” Rev. Gray said.
The sheriff was not available to meet with the group on Monday. Father Keith Oglesby, the Co-President of ICARE, said this is a response they are used to getting.
“As ICARE, we’ve tried to make that appointment for a year now. So we’re disappointed that the sheriff was not able to come out and meet with us and have a conversation,” Fr. Oglesby explained.
Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey told First Coast News the group did not have a meeting scheduled, and their claims that the sheriff’s office does not return their calls are untrue. He also said while JSO no longer has a contract with the National Network for Safe Communities, they are still working partners. JSO even hosted a Group Violence Intervention Conference with the organization in November.
Still, members of ICARE want an assessment of JSO’s Group Violence Intervention Program which was first implemented in 2016. They believe more can be done to prevent violence in their city.
“We think that if the National Network comes in, evaluates the program, finds where the holes are, and helps us to evaluate it and implement it faithfully, we’ll see the results that the other cities have had,” Rev. Gray said.
Coarsey said he and Sheriff Waters are willing to meet with members of ICARE at JSO Headquarters. They just need to schedule a meeting ahead of time.
