A.G. Gancarski
With yet another police-involved shooting in Jacksonville on Wednesday, Sheriff’s candidate Mike Williams, in the interest of “transparency and community trust building,” seeks to open Response to Resistance board meetings to the public. They have been closed since 2010.
“As a candidate for sheriff, and the only one who actually ran the Response to Resistance (RTR) board hearings into police shootings, I certainly have my thoughts about the importance of that fact finding administrative process,” Williams said in a prepared statement Thursday afternoon.
“While it would not be appropriate for me to comment about the specifics of cases in which I have no knowledge, I do plan to challenge the Nov 2010 decision of the 1st District Court to close those RTR hearings to the public. It speaks to transparency and community trust building, when this deliberative process is explained publicly,” Williams said.
Those hearings were closed in the fall 2010, as the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office own website asserts: “In November of 2010 Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeals closed the Response to Resistance Board Meetings of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, as a result of a lawsuit by the Fraternal Order of Police. They could no longer be publicly noticed nor could the public attend the meetings. “
We have conracted Ken Jefferson‘s campaign for comment on this proposal from the Williams camp. We will update this post when we hear back.
Notable: the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Jimmy Holderfield for Sheriff this past summer, in a manner some thought was controversial. Holderfield, who finished third in the first election, crossed party lines and endorsed Jefferson this month.
The FOP is not endorsing during the runoff.
