JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Crime tape surrounded a Westside neighborhood last night as police investigated a shooting that involved undercover Jacksonville sheriff's officers. It's the fourth police involved shooting so far this year, the second in just the last two weeks.
JSO said 20-year-old Christopher Green was the man shot by undercover detectives on Jacksonville's Westside.
Once again, the question of arming JSO with body cameras is coming up. Action News law and safety expert Dale Carson said these cameras will be crucial to investigations like this one.
"It's not unusual for undercover officers to be filmed in a variety of ways," Carson said.
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Carson said cameras would also alleviate misinformation like what we saw with this shooting. JSO originally said the suspect aimed his gun at the officers; now it says he only reached for it.
JSO also said it's unclear whether the undercover officers identified themselves as JSO; Carson said it would be a mistake not to.
"I think it's imperative for the officers to ID themselves immediately because in this case, it would cause the criminal to think twice," Carson said.
But while agencies across the state are weighing whether to invest in the technology, Carson has a bigger concern, the reason behind equipping officers sworn to uphold the law with this type of technology.
"That question for me is whether we should be forced into circumstances where we have to provide electronics to verify the conduct," Carson said.
We also spoke with both candidates for sheriff about this Thursday. Ken Jefferson told us he does want to have an outside agency investigate incidents like this and is seeing a bigger reason to take a closer look at body cameras. Mike Williams wants to bring back a board that would let the public sit in on the investigations and still questions whether body cameras would be effective.
We did reach out to Green’s family. A relative told us they were asked not to discuss the shooting.
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