JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — New data from an Action News Jax public records request is giving us insight into how Animal Care and Protective Services operates.
We requested the calls for service to ACPS starting from January 1st, 2024, to June 1st, 2026, their response times to each type of call they receive, and the number of employees they have.
It shows ACPS received over 30,000 calls for service in both 2024 and 2025.
ACPS currently has 20 positions, two of which are vacant right now due to promotions.
Response times are as follows, under their new priority system:
- ACPS says it can take 25 weekdays for them to complete a call for a stray animal or an animal found.
- 14 weekdays for an animal bite
- 10 weekdays for animal cruelty
- and an immediate response for an animal in distress
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“Those are days to completion,” said Michael Bricker, ACPS Chief. “So we feel that within 25 weekdays we can complete those calls…dogs running at large and stray dogs are one of the lower priorities that we have as far as our call types. The things that get responded to the quickest are in distress.”
This information comes as we’ve reported three separate aggressive dog complaints in different Jacksonville neighborhoods in the last two weeks.
Bricker says “days of completion” mean resolving the case fully. i asked him what determines if they will send someone out right away.
“Just the details of the call. If it is a true cruelty, then yes, we’re gonna go out right away,” Bricker said.
We asked Bricker if he feels his department is understaffed right now, considering more than a million people live in Jacksonville.
“I feel like we could definitely always use more staff. I think the city is growing,” Bricker said.
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We reached out to the mayor’s office and asked if voters approve the property tax relief plan in November, whether ACPS would see funding cuts.
The Mayor’s office sent us this statement saying:
“Mayor Deegan will propose a balanced and lean budget to the City Council in July.
While we are always monitoring possible budget scenarios, funding will be based on continuation of Jacksonville’s incredible momentum, not speculation of voter decisions that haven’t happened yet.”
Bricker says right now he’s not worried about funding.
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