Sheriff briefs business group on 2023 outlook

Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook said she expects crime rates to possibly rebound from their current lows and that her agency will continue developing its real-time crime center and a program that makes mental health counselors available to respond to calls. She said she also hopes to launch a new initiative to prepare jail inmates for the workforce.

Cook gave her outlook for 2023 during a Bridge-to-Bridge Council meeting of the Clay Chamber in Fleming Island.

Cook said Clay is now the 25th most populous county in the state and covers 644 square miles.

“Clay County is not the small county I grew up in anymore,” she said. “We’re in the top third in growth, and we continue to grow.”

Cook said the average number of deputies per 1,000 residents

in the state is 1.9. However, Clay lags with 1.1 officers per 1,000 people.

“So, we are a half deputy behind, but we are still able to provide what I think is just a phenomenal level of public service,” she said.

Cook added that the office typically handles 250,000 calls for service each year, and the agency is on that pace for 2022.

The sheriff said one way her agency has performed well despite having fewer deputies than the state average is its real-time crime center deployment.

The surveillance and analytical center within the sheriff’s office uses cameras throughout the county to monitor events, and its analysts look for patterns and emerging trends in criminal behavior.

Through new technology, business owners may now allow the sheriff’s office access to their privately owned cameras for monitoring in the real-time crime center.

“If something happens in and around your business,” Cook said, “we can immediately have access and take a look to see what’s going on. “We now have access to all the cameras in the schools. It’s a great force multiplier, and we have been able to solve a lot of crime because we’re able to look at those cameras and see what actually is happening.”

Local crime trends

Cook said that although crime rates have been trending down, she thinks low crime rates may be close to bottoming out.

“Although we’re trending down,” she said, “I think with the growth in the county, and what we’re seeing nationwide with the turn in the economy, we may see crime trending back up.”

The sheriff said that the majority of offenses in Clay County are property crimes, with a concentration of shoplifting at major retailers.

“We have very little violent crime in Clay County,” she said, adding that stranger-on-stranger violent crime is almost nonexistent in the jurisdiction. 

“Most of our (violent) crime involves people that are familiar with each other,” she said, either domestic or they owe you money.”

She added that of the approximately seven homicides in the county during 2021, most were justified shootings of citizens defending themselves.

“We only had two murders last year,” she said, “and one was a young woman that actually was killed a couple of years ago, and we found the body (recently). So, we have just an extremely low violent crime rate for a community our size.”

Cook said it is not good enough to have low crime rates, adding that she strives not only for residents to be safe but also to feel safe.

“If you’re altering your behavior or your family’s behavior because you don’t feel safe, I have a problem with that,” she said. I’m going to fix that.”

Cook asked the chamber of commerce crowd how many believe the Orange Park Mall is unsafe.  About one-fourth of the hands went up.

“I’m going to give you some facts,” she said. “Thirty thousand people a week go to the Orange Park Mall. Very little crime (occurs there).”

She added that the mall and the surrounding Wells Road area suffer from a crime perception problem rather than from actual offenses.

“Some people say: ‘Why are we spending time on Wells Road if there’s no crime?’ Because people don’t feel safe going there, and we need to fix that.”

School safety

During her talk to chamber members, Cook briefly covered school safety, telling the crowd about her agency’s unique approach to protecting students.

She said that the state’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act requires an active shooter emergency plan for every public school campus in Florida.

“Every jurisdiction, except Clay County, has a general plan that they just apply over the top of all the schools,” she said. “We wanted to take it one step further. We wanted to be one step better.”

Cook said that instead of using one emergency plan for all schools, her agency met with the administrators of each individual school, tailoring a specific plan for each campus.

She said the 55 meetings with school administrators were eye-opening.

“I did not know that we have a half dozen schools with medically fragile children,” she said. “They can’t be evacuated. I had no idea. That’s huge from a response perspective that we know that.”

Cook said the results of the meetings were six-page emergency response plans for each campus, with floor plans of the buildings and detailed steps administrators should take in the event of an active shooter on campus.

Mental health counselors

Cook said the agency’s first responder program is one initiative she started this year and will continue to roll out in 2023.

“What we have is a partnership with Clay Behavioral Health,” she said, “and at any point we respond to a call where we think that a mental health provider would be the best option, we will call Clay Behavioral Health out.”

Cook said that over the past three months, deputies have requested a mental health counselor around 15 times. She added that some larger law enforcement agencies have a counselor ride along with officers during their shifts.

“We’re not doing that because we just don’t have the volume of calls,” she said, “But when we do call Clay Behavioral, they’re really good about getting out there in under an hour.”

Inmate training

Cook said another initiative her agency will unveil in 2023 is Operation New Hope’s Ready4Release program.

The Jacksonville-based nonprofit currently operates Ready4Release in 30 Florida Department of Corrections facilities. Cook said the Clay County detention facility will be the first county lockup to offer the re-entry training to inmates.

 “I absolutely believe in holding people accountable,” the sheriff said. “But while they’re in my care and custody, I want to do everything I can for them so they will be successful when they get out.”

She added that most of the inmates at the jail have children, and she wants those inmates to be able to take care of their children so those dependents will not wind up in foster care.

Cook said that because New Hope has a high success rate, employers are lining up to offer jobs to inmates.

“All these wonderful jobs that pay wonderful money are lined up to get these guys,” she said.

Cook said another initiative she plans to continue in 2023 is consolidating the agency’s functions and personnel.

“One of the really interesting things about the sheriff’s office is we occupy 18 different buildings throughout this county,” she said. “One of my goals eventually is to consolidate a lot of that.”

Cook added that one key to agency consolidation is an 89-bed jail expansion.

“We average over 400 inmates a day,” she said.

Cook explained that a jail is considered at capacity when it reaches 80% occupancy, and the Clay facility has been overcapacity for two consecutive years.

“And with the county’s growth, it’s not going to get any better,” she said. “We’re going to move finance and HR out (of the building) to make room for more jail space.”

Cook also said the agency will start looking into body cameras for deputies in 2023.  She called the venture expensive and added that grants other agencies have used to finance the cameras only cover a portion of the costs.