FOP president accuses Jacksonville city council members of intimidating officers

Jacksonville’s Fraternal Order of Police union president is accusing two city council members of trying to intimidate JSO officers.

This all started with a traffic stop last week.

A JSO report said an officer stopped City Councilman Reggie Gaffney last Monday night because the tag on the car he was driving had been reported stolen.

The same report said Gaffney told the officer “the license plate was never stolen off of his vehicle and he does not remember why he would have made the original report.”

Action News Jax got that original report from JSO, which said Gaffney himself walked into a JSO substation on March 3, 2016, to tell them his car tag was stolen.

That report said Gaffney told officers his tag was stolen off his Lexus after he received multiple red light camera citations.

“In 29 years of police work, I’ve never seen a tag stolen, used allegedly to run red light cameras, and then miraculously appear back on someone’s vehicle,” said FOP President Steve Zona.

Through a public records request, Action News Jax also found that Gaffney used the tag he’d reported stolen when he requested his decal to park in a city garage.

Action News Jax found no documentation that Gaffney ever told JSO he had recovered the tag.

Zona is now calling on JSO’s Integrity Unit to investigate whether Gaffney falsely reported his tag missing to avoid paying the citations.

Zona said body camera footage of the traffic stop shows Gaffney tried to intimidate the officers who stopped him.

“Councilman Gaffney abused his position as a sitting city council member and tried to intimidate those police officers into not doing what they were doing. He threatened them with the sheriff, he threatened them with a chief. He actually called a chief and put a chief on the telephone and handed it to one of the police officers during the traffic stop,” Zona said.

Zona also said body camera footage shows City Councilwoman Katrina Brown pulled up and accused the officers of racial profiling.

“I can tell you that the official footage of the traffic stop will be reviewed to determine if all actions of the officers conformed to our policies and procedures,” JSO spokesperson Lauri-Ellen Smith emailed Action News Jax.

Both Councilwoman Brown and Councilman Gaffney will vote Tuesday night on whether to add 100 new JSO officer positions.

“They should stand up tomorrow night during city council, grab that microphone, apologize to those police officers and apologize to every police officer here in the city of Jacksonville for their behavior during that traffic stop. And if they don’t, then yes, I think they should resign. They’re not fit to serve,” Zona said.

Gaffney didn’t return Action News Jax’s multiple calls, so we went to his nonprofit Community Rehabilitation Center.

The receptionist denied Gaffney was there Monday, even though his Lexus with the same tag – which expired last month – and city council parking decals was in CRC’s parking lot.

“OK, well he has two cars and he also drives a truck from time to time,” said the receptionist.

Campaign paperwork shows Gaffney filed for re-election to his city council seat two days after the traffic stop.

Brown did not respond to Action News Jax’s calls or text message for her side of the story.

Cox Media Group