JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is now the sole provider of ankle-monitoring services in Duval County, and new records obtained by Action News Jax show the agency may be leaving your tax dollars on the table.
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Action News Jax first reported last month that JSO had $156,000 in uncollected outstanding fees on the 129 active ankle monitors under its purview as of Aug. 3.
Now, records show JSO’s uncollected fees ballooned by 20% over a 62-day period.
As of Oct. 4, JSO had nearly $187,000 in uncollected fees tied to 142 active ankle monitors under its purview.
Ankle monitors are used to keep track of defendants out on bond, or in other cases, to track people serving house arrest or probation.
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Individuals ordered to wear the monitors are charged daily fees to pay for the service.
Back in September, we spoke with Josh Cockrell, who runs Reliable Monitoring Solutions, one of the private vendors cut out of the marketplace by JSO’s takeover of all ankle-monitoring services in Duval County.
At the time, Cockrell told us his company collected roughly 90% of the fees it was owed.
JSO is currently only collecting about 35% of the fees it has charged.
“And it’s unfortunate the taxpayers have to pay for said services,” said Cockrell during the September interview.
But the 35% collection rate is a slight improvement compared to where things stood back in August.
At that time, JSO was only collecting 27% of the fees it charged.
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Councilmember Joyce Morgan (D-District 1) raised concerns about JSO’s ability to absorb the additional workload of facilitating all ankle-monitoring services when the plan was first revealed at an August budget hearing.
The program is housed within JSO’s corrections division, which was short 109 officers at the time of that August hearing.
On Tuesday, she told us Tuesday she’s in a wait-and-see posture, as the agency has agreed to submit to an audit of the program this coming March.
“The new fiscal year just started, so if they’re successful in a month, I’m sure that they’ll come back and be more than willing to share those numbers with us,” said Morgan.
We reached out to both sheriff candidates and asked what they think of JSO’s takeover of ankle-monitoring services.
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“As our next Sheriff, T.K. Waters will be a good steward of our hard-earned tax dollars. T.K. and his team will review existing JSO practices, ankle monitoring included, to ensure taxpayer money is spent wisely and effectively,” said Republican candidate TK Waters’ campaign in a statement provided to Action News Jax.
“Every service JSO provides should be routinely evaluated for effectiveness and efficiency. There is an obvious shortfall within this process and it should be addressed to ensure the taxpayer dollars are not only spent correctly, but also collected correctly. As I have said, when I am elected Sheriff, I will be doing a thorough assessment of the agency and all facets within the respective departments. I am confident that I will continue my record of making the people, places and processes better as I have always done,” said Democratic candidate Lakesha Burton in a statement provided by her campaign.
We reached out to JSO Tuesday and asked what the agency is doing to raise its collection rates, and whether the agency is satisfied with its current collection rate.
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We’re told the agency is working on a response.