Jax’s new sheriff lays out agenda as former Democratic opponent prepares for March election

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Sheriff TK Waters won his election just two weeks ago, and already his Democratic opponent Lakesha Burton appears to be eying another challenge in the March Unitary Election.

Waters announced his new leadership team at Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office headquarters Tuesday and laid out some of his immediate goals as sheriff.

At the top of the list: revamping JSO’s patrol zones something Waters said his staff is already hard at work analyzing.

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“It’s going to allow us to get closer to community, working smaller areas of responsibility to be able to deliver quicker and more efficient service,” said Waters.

Across town at the Supervisor of Elections office, Lakesha Burton, fresh off a defeat in the midterm runoff election, picked up a candidate packet for the upcoming sheriff’s race in March.

Her campaign told us she has not officially decided if she’ll run.

Waters addressed the possibility of facing Burton during his press conference Tuesday.

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The battle would come just four months after winning his first election.

“The community spoke loud and clear in the primary, they spoke loud and clear in the general and we’ll let them speak loud and clear again,” said Waters.

We pushed Waters on what he hopes to deliver for voters between now and the March election.

“One, we want to lower the crime rate. We want the violent crime rate, we want to get that low and we’re going to work on that very, very hard,” said Waters.

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Sheriff Waters also said he hopes to increase the number of officers on the streets, but he has not yet determined a specific number.

“I want to let what we do dictate that number. I do know that, like I said, ISCP came in. We need 2.5 officers per 1,000, resident” said Waters.

If Burton does decide to run and ended up winning, Sheriff Waters’ term would end July 1st, limiting his tenure to just over seven months.

Waters is technically serving out the remainder of former Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams’ term, who resigned after it was revealed he’d violated the city charter by moving out of Duval County.

However, the victor of the March Unitary race will earn a full four-year term in the office.

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