The Jacksonville Community Action Committee on Tuesday afternoon joined together with other local organizations for a rally, demanding the Jacksonville City Council reinstate its “Safer Together” committee.

A day after 15 community organizations or individuals signed an open letter to City Council President Sam Newby, imploring him to continue the work being done by Jacksonville’s Safer Together Committee, Newby responded with a memo thanking them for their service -- which he says is complete.

Fifteen community organizations or individuals -- including State Rep. Angie Nixon -- have signed an open letter to City Council President Sam Newby, imploring him to continue the work being done by Jacksonville’s Safer Together Committee.

Efforts to create a Citizen Review Board (CRB) to investigate complaints against the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, including police-involved shootings, may be taking a detour.

Members of the “Safer Together” panel meeting Friday heard from experts and took questions from people to further examine what’s working and what’s not. Of the 2,466 inmates at the Duval County jail, 119 of them have a known mental illness, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. How people with mental illness are treated during their arrest, and the programs that exist to help them -- were just a few of the many topics discussed during the virtual session between council members and the general public. The city launched a Mental Health Offender Program one month ago to help repeat offenders with a mental illness. Mental health advocates also talked about the expansion of a co-responder program, which teams up mental health care experts with officers responding to calls for service.