JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The City of Jacksonville could receive $730,000 from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to purchase and install cameras for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s Real Time Crime Center. The funding bill had a first reading at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
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The agreement states that approximately $472,000 will be used to purchase around 200 surveillance cameras for the crime center, and $258,000 will be allocated for installation across the city.
JSO says the cameras will enhance the agency’s ability to capture and analyze data used to investigate criminal activity and help officers in the field.
The real-time crime center has helped investigators in multiple cases, including helping to identify the driver and make an arrest in a deadly hit-and-run crash that killed a star student-athlete.
In the summer of 2023, when a man murdered three people in a racially motivated attack at a Dollar General, it was the center’s cameras that recorded critical information that helped officers piece together a timeline of events.
In April 2024, a stray bullet hit a school bus in the Hogan’s Creek area. A camera caught a Jeep leaving the scene and tracked it back to a home.
The crime center was operational in 2019 when the city first invested $3 million into the center.
News4JAX reached out to JSO for comment about where and when the cameras would be installed, but it did not immediately respond.