The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is launching a review after Action News Jax sent it a video of JSO employees who appear to be jaywalking.
This all comes at a time when JSO has sparred with a local media outlet over reports that officers have been writing more pedestrian tickets to African-Americans.
The video shows JSO employees in all-black uniforms hurrying across Bay Street as cars drive by.
SEE ALSO: Man says Jacksonville cop threatened him with jail for crossing street illegally
The video was shot at night, but it’s easy to see they would be hard to spot.
In all, Action News Jax captured five JSO employees appearing to jaywalk that night, but off-camera we've witnessed dozens of others doing the same thing.
“Aren’t they doing exactly what they ticketed you for?” Action News Jax Reporter Russell Colburn asked Vonte Shipman.
“Exactly,” Shipman replied. “They can only do it because- what- they have the badge?”
Last June, Action News Jax first showed you viral video of Shipman in a confrontation with a JSO officer in a crosswalk.
Shipman was cited for crossing against the red hand. He is still fighting that ticket.
In a reporting collaboration between ProPublica, the Florida Times-Union and Vox, they found in the past five years, JSO has written more than 2,200 pedestrian tickets.
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They said the most common was for failing to cross at a crosswalk.
JSO fired back at the reporting, calling it "inaccurate," and at times, "intentionally misleading."
Action News Jax showed the video to Action News Jax Crime and Safety Expert- and former JSO officer- Ken Jefferson.
“It doesn’t look good that their personnel are doing the very thing that they’re citing other people for,” Jefferson said. “It has no good look whatsoever. It’s something that they’re going to have to take into consideration, particularly if they’re pushing writing the citations to pedestrians.”
“Everybody is subject to the same law, whether you’re in uniform or out of uniform,” Jefferson added.
This is the response from a JSO representative after Action News Jax sent JSO the video and requested an interview with Sheriff Mike Williams: “I have forwarded the information and your video for an administrative review. Until this review has been completed, we will not be able to comment.”
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