JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters hit the ground running at his first town hall meeting to address community concerns.
His first stop was in District 6, which included the Northside, San Mateo and Oceanway neighborhoods.
“If I do not respond to a concern that you have, I am not doing my job,” Waters said to the crowd at The Church of Eleven22.
One of Tuesday night’s topics of conversation was about the future of the Duval County Jail and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office headquarters.
Waters said the jail has outlived its lifespan and has problems that need to be dealt with now.
“It has to be done,” he said. “Nobody wants it in their neighborhoods, either, I understand that.”
Finding a new location is a lengthy process for the sheriff’s office, but Waters said he wants to consider a place that is relatively centralized with plenty of space to build a campus-style facility, one that allows them to only have to build about two stories high.
“We’d like for it to be somewhere in the beltway. That’s probably not ideal. But somewhere that’s outside the beltway, that’s not deep, deep north,” Waters said.
He did not provide a timeline for when the final location would be decided, noting that the process includes JSO and the city council.
Waters also anticipated that JSO headquarters would fully relocate to the Florida Blue building on Downtown Northbank by November 2026 at the latest.
