ORANGE PARK, Fla. – The Town of Orange Park is working to determine how its police force should handle immigration.
Currently, the Orange Park Police Department doesn’t have any officers with the certification to hold people with federal immigration warrants. The town council is hoping to amend that by working with the federal government.
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Orange Park Police Chief Randy Case recently approached the town council to discuss getting a few officers certified.
“All of the county sheriffs in the state of Florida have utilized this agreement with ICE,” Case said. “And the Florida police chiefs provided this to all the law enforcement agencies to review, and I think this would be beneficial to our town and would be beneficial to get one or two of our officers certified if they came across this.”
Sabin Hoverter, an Orange Park resident, said he agrees with the move.
“Immigration seems like it’s moving out of Jacksonville this way,” Hoverter said.
Currently, the town is looking at how to fund getting one or two officers certified; meanwhile, the federal government has indicated they can fund the training, but there are still some questions that Orange Park’s town council must work through before anything is finalized.
The council has not fully voted on this matter and invites the public to offer input at upcoming town council meetings.