About Us

Why We Operate as an Independent Nonprofit

Jacksonville doesn’t have an independent civilian oversight committee responsible for reviewing the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The city’s own list of boards and commissions doesn’t include one dedicated to JSO oversight. City of Jacksonville Boards and CommissionswebsiteAccessed Oct 9, 2026

Florida law also limits what an official board can do. Under section 30.61, Florida Statutes, a county sheriff may create a civilian oversight board - but isn’t required to. If one is created, the sheriff appoints all three to seven members, and at least one must be a retired law-enforcement officer. The board’s authority is limited to reviewing the sheriff’s office’s policies and procedures. Section 30.61, Florida StatuteswebsiteAccessed Oct 9, 2026

The law also blocks local governments from adopting an ordinance that gives civilians oversight of an agency’s misconduct investigations. Complaints generally have to be reviewed or investigated by the officer’s own agency. Section 112.533, Florida StatuteswebsiteAccessed Oct 9, 2026

On paper, a civilian oversight board sounds like independent oversight. In practice, under current Florida law, the sheriff decides whether it exists, picks its members, and controls its relationship with the agency it’s reviewing.

The JSO Transparency Project is structured differently. As an independent nonprofit:

  • Our existence does not depend on the sheriff deciding to create or maintain an oversight board.
  • Our researchers are not selected by the sheriff or another person within JSO.
  • We can determine which questions require further research without receiving approval from JSO.
  • We can review completed internal investigations after the records become public.
  • We can examine subjects outside of JSO’s written policies and procedures.
  • We can study relationships between JSO, private individuals, political donors, public officials, and other organizations.
  • We can compare JSO’s practices with those of other law-enforcement agencies.
  • We can connect records from JSO, the courts, the State Attorney’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, and other government agencies.
  • We can preserve records and findings across different sheriffs and city administrations.
  • We can publish searchable databases, timelines, source documents, and explanations for the public.
  • We can continue researching an issue even when an official investigation has been closed.

An official oversight board reviews whatever’s placed in front of it at a given meeting. We look at information over a longer period - long enough to compare similar events, spot inconsistent outcomes, and tell whether something is part of a pattern.

We also research questions that don’t involve a formal complaint against an individual officer - building access, special privileges, political relationships, disciplinary systems, organizational structure, records-retention practices, or gaps between written policy and documented practice.

What we can’t do:

  • Subpoena witnesses or compel testimony.
  • Make disciplinary decisions.
  • Obtain records that are legally confidential or exempt from disclosure.
  • Replace an official investigative agency or a civilian oversight board with real independent authority.

Our role is different: we use public records and government data to do independent research, preserve information, identify patterns, and put evidence in front of the public that would otherwise be hard to find or make sense of.

No independent civilian oversight committee currently reviews JSO in Jacksonville. This is oversight that doesn’t depend on the agency being reviewed.