JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Jacksonville's new mayor admits, downtown needs more police officers patrolling the streets.
Mayor Alvin Brown held a special meeting with Sheriff John Rutherford Friday afternoon. The focus was to make downtown a safe place.
Jerry Moran makes sure his restaurant is locked up every night. He's seen his fair share of crime in Downtown Jacksonville. He just had an incident this week with someone who came in. "He was walking off with my computer bag," said Moran.
Action News found several police reports of crime downtown. Wednesday night there was a shooting outside the Greyhound bus station after a man refused to give two others a lift. Also Wednesday, a man was arrested for stealing a woman's purse outside the South Light Gallery. Last Saturday night, a carjacking and robbery to two people leaving The Landing. It's incidents like these that prompted Mayor Alvin Brown to take action. He asked for a special meeting with Sheriff Rutherford. "We want to make sure people know it's safe to come downtown, to visit and shop," said Mayor Brown.
Action News waited at the mayor's office while the two met for an hour. They came out with a plan of action.
"We are going to have more visibility and more officers, more spread out," said Mayor Brown. "They're down there. I don't think people realize they're down there," said Sheriff Rutherford.
One other new piece of information we learned is a private security company called Triton is meeting with downtown business owners next week. In a letter, they said with the negative publicity downtown has received, they want to offer downtown businesses armed security.
