JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Rep. John Rutherford held a roundtable discussion in Jacksonville on Thursday with sheriffs from several local counties.
At a news conference afterward, Rutherford, a former Jacksonville sheriff, said he’s been tapped to lead the law enforcement pillar of Republican initiative in the U.S. House focused on American security. The other branches of the task force are keying on the southern border and cybersecurity.
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Rutherford said his goal will be to lead several focus groups, like the one in Jacksonville on Thursday, to hear from local law enforcement leaders how the federal government can best assist them.
“The first thing that I’ve heard very clearly from these sheriffs is that we want the federal government to assist, but we don’t want you coming down and mandating things across the board because law enforcement is a state and local event,” Rutherford said of Thursday’s meeting.
He said the sheriffs discussed issues with grants and accreditation, and they focused on the possible effects of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which has passed the House on a mostly party-line vote but has not yet been voted on in the Senate.
Rutherford, who voted against the George Floyd act, said he wants to come up with federal legislation “that can actually help state and local law enforcement instead of putting undue burden upon them.”
He said the focus should be on evolving the best practices of law enforcement, not on a complete overhaul or reform of the policing system. He said that approach could improve community relations with police.
“Your community wants to know -- not that you’re never going to have a problem -- but that when you have one, you fix it, and you’re better because of it and you move on. That is what I think you’ll see out of this,” Rutherford said.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams, Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook and others in attendance backed Rutherford’s stance.
“When we meet with our citizens, they tell us what level of service they expect from local law enforcement, and we’re able to deliver that every day,” Cook said. “If you start defining in D.C. what local law enforcement should look like, you really have taken the power away of the community who talks to their local law enforcement and defines what level of policing they want.”
A local civil rights activist said Rutherford is trying to turn back the hands of time on progress made by the Black Lives Matter movement.
”When the people demand trust, transparency and accountability the system should not turn its head and look the other way. It should not keep acting as these very real issues with the police don’t exist,” said Ben Frazier with the Northside Coalition. “In the words of the great writer James Baldwin: Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Frazier’s Northside Coalition group released a statement following the news conference:
“We marched demonstrated, rallied and protested last year to demand police accountability; an end to racial profiling, and to call for positive change to the culture of law enforcement.
We are hopeful that someday in Duval County there will be a sheriff who will reach out and sincerely try to build trust between law enforcement and our communities.
If the sheriff wants to serve and protect all citizens; we must begin to honestly address the issue of systemic racism in law enforcement policies, practices and procedures.”