JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Neighbors near a Westside parking lot have long been frustrated by loud late-night car meetups in the shopping center’s parking lot, which include blaring noise from loud music, revving engines, spinning tires, and burnouts, especially on weekend nights.
For the past two weeks, News4JAX reporter Erik Avanier has been covering the issue and spoke with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office about their response to the ongoing complaints.
In a written statement, police acknowledged that the Paxon Shopping Center, located on Edgewood Avenue, is a frequent source of noise complaints and calls for service. The parking lot often fills with people playing loud music and performing car stunts late at night.
Previous coverage can be seen on the video players below
JSO explained that most 911 calls about excessive noise come in late at night, but noise complaints are not as prioritized as highly compared to violent crimes such as shootings, robberies, and burglaries that may be in progress.
Over the past five years, JSO has conducted 15 deployments to the parking lot to deter these gatherings. These efforts have resulted in verbal warnings, traffic citations, and court summonses for some attendees.
The full statement can be read below:
Paxon Shopping Center has long been a property where JSO receives numerous complaints and calls for service. Patrons will frequent the Paxon Liquors Lounge, which is a package store and bar. Some individuals will often congregate in the parking lot while playing car stereos loudly, or revving their engines, spinning their tires and doing burnouts.
Most of the complaints and calls for service occur late at night. JSO dispatches calls for service on a priority scale wherein shootings, robberies, physical violence, burglaries in progress and crashes with injuries have the highest property. As a result, a noise complaint for this property will be dispatched and responded to by JSO as soon as an officer is available to address it.
Over the last year, District 5 officers have conducted 15 deployments at the Paxon Shopping Center in an attempt to deter the late-night behavior by some patrons. These deployments often result in individuals receiving verbal warnings, traffic citations, notice to appear citations, and trespass warnings. The latest JSO deployment was conducted on October 25, 2025. Officers went to the shopping center earlier in the night at around 2230 hours.
Due to the business owners hiring private security, the loitering in the parking lot was reduced so that no additional enforcement action was needed by JSO. Later that same night at about 2348 hours, JSO was dispatched to the shopping center in reference to “100 people loitering and threatening security”. Upon JSO arriving on scene, many of the individuals had dispersed and left the area. One individual was issued a citation after becoming defiant. Further, JSO remained in the parking lot until it was cleared out at approximately 0100 hours.
JSO has recently spoken with management at Paxon Liquors to request that it advise the patrons to stay inside the business and not congregate on the sidewalks and parking lot. We also advised management to call JSO if they have any issues with people congregating in the parking lot so we can address issues before there is a larger problem. We will continue to do deployments at this shopping center to curtail any nuisance/criminal violations.
I assure you that JSO does not condone the late-night activities that occur in the Paxon Shopping Center and are trying to be proactive in keeping it under control.
JSO Commander Massey
Last weekend, News4JAX captured video of police officers responding to a report of about 100 people loitering in the lot and threatening security guards.
JSO said one person was cited for defying officers’ orders to leave the area.
The Paxon Liquor Store is the only business in the shopping center open until 2 a.m. on weekends. The property owner told News4JAX he will not renew the liquor store’s lease after two years of complaints, believing the store attracts the crowd.
However, a store manager said most people loitering are not their customers.
JSO has instructed store management to inform customers that gathering in the parking lot is not allowed.
The agency says it will continue deployments at the shopping center to address nuisance and criminal behavior.