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New initiative to increase police presence in Jacksonville begins

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new initiative kicks off Tuesday to increase police presence in problem areas, and a new partnership is on the horizon that Jacksonville’s sheriff said will make a difference.

Sheriff Mike Williams asked the city to use $180,000 in forfeiture assets for a partnership with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Williams said that partnership will give the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office access to a unique information sharing grid, partly paid for by criminals using the drug money JSO has seized from dealers over the years.

Williams believes the partnership will help fight violence in the long term. In the short term, he’s adding a fourth arm to the violent crimes task force.

“We are going to take a narcotics, a homicide investigator, a gang investigator and an investigator that looks at our aggravated batteries, so our shootings that are not murders. We've combined those units together,” Williams said. “We'll have four multi-disciplinary teams.”

The city’s operation to stop gangs turns to a seven day a week focus.

The sheriff hopes that partnership with John Jay comes to fruition in the next 30 days.

“Not one of these things is the magic bullet. It's really a collaboration of these efforts together that is the long-term solution,” Williams said.