Jacksonville,Fl. — Despite the pandemic Jacksonville has seen a violent year in 2020 and there’s still one day left before the new year.
Action News Jax Alicia Tarancon has been digging through the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office records and found that the number of homicides is up from previous years.
She reports that despite new technologies families are seeing an uptick in crime.
Dorothy Washington is still looking for answers after her brother-in-law was murdered two years ago.
Breon Glenn died on this porch on W 2nd Street in New Town.
“He done his wrong, he done his good, but at the end of the day no one deserves to lose their life the way he did,” Washington said.
Glenn left behind a son and family members that miss him every day.
“They talk about it all the time you know. What if he was here what would have been going on. The kids toys for Christmas would have been put together and stuff like that,” Washington said.
And they’re not alone. Dozens of cases in Jacksonville remained unsolved.
The city of Jacksonville is using different technology to prevent violence.
The includes shot spotter which can alert police of gunshots and the crime gun intelligence center but 2020 has still been a violent year with an increase in homicides.
We went ahead and pulled up my laptop according to JSO’s transparency page there have been 140 homicides so this year and that’s not including pending cases.
In 2019 there were 130 people killed in Duval County and 110 homicides in 2018.
Washington said she’s still hoping that someone who knows anything about Glenn’s murder will come forward.
That way her family get some sort of closure.
“Think of it if it was your family member, what would you want everybody to do. You know you’ll be in the same spot I’m in asking for help to find the person who killed our loved ones,” Washington said.
JSO had a clearance rate of 35% last year.
That the rate of murders that have been solved.
We reached out to the sheriff’s office to get the clearance rate for 2020 and we were told there’s no available numbers yet since the year has not concluded.
Once the year finishes the data will be retrieved and vetted before being released.