Q&A | Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters discusses the jail, police shootings and more

With half of 2026 done, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters has a year left in his first term leading the men and women of the city’s police force.

As he prepares to run for a second term, this year has presented some issues.

More officers have been involved in shootings in the last six months than all of last year.

His officers have dealt with immigration cases, but apparently had what he calls a “snafu” when it came to reporting those arrests to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Through it all, his department is moving out of its 52-year-old headquarters on East Bay Street to a new home in the former Blue Cross-Blue Shield building on Riverside Avenue. Plans continue to find a new home for the 35-year-old John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility — the Duval County jail — next door.

So Jacksonville Today spent time with Waters this week to ask about these and other issues facing the department, plus some updates. Our 35-minute interview has been edited for length and context,

Q: It has been a year plus since Charlie Faggart died while in Sheriff’s Office custody at the jail. The FBI’s Jacksonville Office is now investigating as the Faggart family has filed suit against the department and its sheriff. Is there anything you can say about Charlie Faggart? 

A: I can say that we’re just waiting for the FBI to finish, and the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District. That’s all we’re waiting for. We’re done. The state attorney’s done. … That (delay) creates a little frustration, you know, because we don’t operate as slowly as they do. I guess it’s a nice way to say it, but, you know, I’m confident that we should have some answers coming up very soon. Okay, well, let’s say fairly soon, hopefully before the end of the year.

(As Jacksonville Today interviewed the sheriff Thursday, Belkis Plata, the Faggart family attorney, said that an evidentiary hearing in their lawsuit is set for Aug. 3 in the Duval County Courthouse. The lawsuit seeks to require the Sheriff’s Office to comply with Florida’s Public Records Act by producing records related to Faggart’s death, evidence that has been requested by the family for more than a year.)

Q: You are on the Florida Immigration Enforcement Council, and the Sheriff’s Office has failed to report any immigration-related arrests or encounters over the past year, according to a story in the Florida Phoenix. You said — in your words — that it was a “reporting snafu.”

A: Oh, boy, I’m glad you asked that question. No, we were reporting. Apparently they didn’t like the way that we were reporting. The mix-up was, the officers thought that when they filled out the form, that was the notification to ICE. And so it’s a reporting error, I guess you would say, by our guys, by not checking the right box. But we’re doing everything we’re supposed to do. … And actually, several of those were even arrests for local charges and detainers have been placed on those individuals. So we’re doing our jobs. … We’ve had over 2,000 investigations inside the Duval County jail from people that we’ve arrested and put in that jail that were foreign nationals and not from the United States of America. Of those this year, there was well over almost 300 of them that have ICE detainers placed on them. So we’re doing our jobs.

Q: Murders, manslaughter, justifiable homicides — your department’s Homicide Data Overview said there have been 30 as of yesterday, versus 97 in all of 2025. … But we’ve had a whole slew of shootings, including two women shot yesterday, apparently in the back as they were driving their BMW up near Andrew Robinson Elementary School.  First of all, any comment on the current homicide number? 

A: Yes, it’s a massive improvement over where we’ve been. It’s even more improved than it was in 2024. … Speaking of murder numbers specifically, we’re very encouraged by that. But of course, when you have a domestic situation, domestics have been a problem since last year. That was a big issue. There was some really, really strange stuff, stuff that I can’t really even explain taking place in some of those cases. … One thing I’m encouraged by is the random street violence is almost gone. I am not saying it’s gone; I’m saying the random gang violence and those type of things. The drive-bys, you don’t hear much of that anymore.

Q: We’ve had 11 officer-involved shootings so far this year versus 17 for all of last year. So that’s 11 at the halfway point. The numbers appear to be trending a little higher, that you might break, unfortunately, last year’s number if it continues. Any comments?

A: I can say that there’s a lot of reasons why people are emboldened to pull guns and draw knives. I think the more it becomes almost socially acceptable to challenge authority and challenge police officers and agencies, then you may see an uptick. I’m never going to tell a police officer not to defend himself or someone else. … But if you introduce a weapon in an encounter with the police, chances are 99.9% that you’re going to get shot. That’s just the facts. And this is what’s been happening. We don’t want it to happen — don’t ever want it to happen. Because typically when that kind of stuff happens, it happens because the officer’s life is in danger or someone else’s life is in danger. 

Q: Yet (civil rights attorney) Ben Crump has been here two or three times, including an April news conference to highlight police bodycam video showing sheriff’s deputies hitting Dasaun Williams in November, and the violent arrest in 2024 of another Black man, Travis Brinkley. Is there any concern that officers are reacting inappropriately, as Crump has alleged. 

A: I don’t listen to him because he’s a grifter. He comes to our city. He knows nothing about it. He knows nothing about this agency that I’ve served for 35 years. The men and women that work here, he knows nothing about them. He’s just taking an opportunity.

Q: We’ve seen you at the podium 10 times this year talking about the arrest of JSO employees, including four motor officers who padded their overtime. So that’s 10 so far, versus seven last year. What’s falling through the cracks here that your employees are getting involved in things that end up getting them arrested or fired? 

A: Nothing’s falling through the cracks. I think when you hire someone in a job like this, you go through this extensive process to get hired here. You’re given a badge, a gun, a vehicle, and you have the ability to take someone’s freedom or someone’s life. So we have to have the ability to trust them to go out and do the jobs that we ask them to do. When we find out they’re not doing it, or they’re doing something outside of what they’re supposed to be doing, I think the real question is how we handle that information. And you’ve seen how we handle it. We arrest them because you can’t afford to damage the badge, which I think is an honorable profession.

Q: Have you reinforced among the rank and file that you have to maintain a professional standard at all times?

A: Do you know what reinforces that? When they see me and the undersheriff go stand up because we’ve arrested one, that helps reinforce it. That also shows the public that we don’t tolerate the nonsense.

Q: In the past few months, we’ve had instances of AI facial recognition that seemed to make a mistake, leading to an arrest. Are there any safeguards being put into place, a human being to make sure that if an AI, if a camera, of which we have many around here, sees a face that pings on the database, that there’s a human checking to make sure that this is the correct person? 

A: We use (AI) as a tool to help bolster our case. You don’t arrest on facial recognition software, ever. That alone does not serve as enough probable cause to arrest a person.

Q: What’s the status of a new jail?

A: We put a Request for Proposal for a consultant to help us build the jail and figure out the processes, and CGL won that. And they began the process of looking at locations and that kind of thing. So that thing’s moving. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s a process. We have no idea where the location is going to be yet. But before we turn a key and open a door, that is four or five years down the road. 

Q: Are you or your consultant listening to some of the gripes of certain neighborhoods that they don’t want a new jail in their neighborhood because they’re underserved, underrepresented, and they don’t want it? 

A: I reject the term underserved. … We put manpower over there where it’s necessary. So I believe they’re served. I don’t think there’s any part of the city that won’t be looked at for a new facility.  Whether a councilman puts out a resolution saying that it shouldn’t happen or not, that doesn’t matter. I think everyone has a right. Every side of town is equally in the conversation for the new facility. But there’s also ways to build a facility that doesn’t look like a jail anymore. … It’s important to listen. But it would be wrong for me to exclude those people and include Mandarin and the Westside and Arlington and all those other places because they feel like they shouldn’t have it over there. 

Q: How much of this department has moved to the former Blue Cross-Blue Shield tower on Riverside Avenue, and when do you expect the Sheriff’s Office to fully move out of its current 35-year-old facility.

A: Homeland Security is there now. And as of Sept. 1, we’ll begin to move over there, and we should be in there probably no later than the end of the year. Then this building will be left up to the city and how they want to move, how they want to proceed. … I think it’s long overdue. This building, although it looks looked modern, these (pointing to his windows) are the only windows in the building. So I have people working in homicide, sex crimes or special assault that are working in all these places, but they’re working in a closed environment. Not even a window to look out of. It’s not good for your. … I think it’s a huge win for us, thankful that we’re making that move and I’m really, really looking forward to it.

Q: What’s the gang situation right now? Especially, we had the recent arrest and conviction of Jacksonville rapper Foolio’s murderers after a 2024 ambush shooting in Tampa.

A: They still exist. But what we’re finding is they’re a lot less willing to fire guns at each other, which is good. They were driving the violence in our city. I can tell you, guys are going to prison and never coming back that are responsible for a lot of terrible, terrible things. … And then we have a group of officers that are out there and their sole purpose is to suppress that kind of behavior. So you don’t see a lot of the random drive-bys in Grand Park where kids are out practicing football because that’s unacceptable. You don’t see a lot of the weird stuff that you saw happening. … I think those two things combined in the public itself, we’re winning.

Q: You have got a year left in your first term. What are your goals, including reelection? 

A: Well, reelection first and foremost. But while we’re working on that, that’s a side thing. My goal is to make sure our city gets even safer, continue to make sure that we stay focused on the issues that the public sees and what they want us to address. … We want to continue to build that public trust, continue to build that public partnership, those public partnerships to see our agency and our city reach the limits that it can reach. And I think we’re just scratching the surface where we’re going to go as a city.

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