Alachua County Commissioners withdraw letter to Sheriff because Prizzia said the agency ‘agreed to take down mugshots on social media’; Sheriff says ‘conversations are ongoing’

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – During Commission Comment at the end of the January 13 Alachua County Commission meeting, Commissioners voted to withdraw a Chair letter to the Sheriff after Commissioner Anna Prizzia said the Undersheriff told her the agency has “already agreed to take down mugshots on social media.” However, a spokesman from the Sheriff’s Office told us “conversations are ongoing” and mugshots may be posted in specific circumstances.

Referring to a Chair letter that the Commission approved last week, asking Sheriff Chad Scott to stop posting mugshots on social media, Prizzia said she didn’t know whether the letter had been sent, but she “had a productive conversation with Undersheriff [Joshua] Crews about that, and they have already agreed to take down mugshots on social media. So I don’t know that we really need the letter if it hasn’t already gone out.”

Chair Ken Cornell said it hadn’t gone out, but he had planned to ask the other Commissioners to review and sign it, “unless you want to withdraw that motion.” Prizzia said, “Yeah, I guess I can withdraw the motion if everyone’s okay with that. They’ve said they would go ahead and move forward with that, so I don’t see any reason to send a formal letter.” Commissioner Chuck Chestnut seconded the motion. 

Cornell said, “I, too, had a conversation with the Undersheriff and the Sheriff, and I appreciate the fact that we have… constitutional officers that are just responsive and really in tune with what the community is asking and what we are asking, and so I will support that motion.” Cornell was the only vote against the motion to send the Chair letter.

The motion to withdraw the letter passed unanimously.

Sheriff’s Office: There may be cases when publishing a mugshot serves the goal of public safety

The Commissioners’ accounts of the Sheriff’s intentions do not align exactly with a statement issued last week by Sheriff Scott; in his letter, Scott repeatedly stated that he is committed to transparency and said he would speak with all of the Commissioners, “both individually and collectively… with the shared goal of providing the highest level of service to our community.”

We reached out to the Sheriff’s Office, and Public Information Officer Chris Sims said the Sheriff and Undersheriff have only spoken to two Commissioners, Cornell and Prizzia, and they still intend to meet individually with the remaining Commissioners and attend a meeting of the full board. Sims said the Sheriff is seeking common ground with Commissioners, but the agency will not stop posting details about important investigations, including names and charges, with the understanding that the charges are allegations, not convictions. He said there will be cases when publishing a mugshot serves the agency’s goal of public safety, particularly when there may be imminent danger to the public from a subject who is not in custody.

Sims emphasized that mugshots are public records and are available on the agency’s Inmate Search website and the ACSO phone app, regardless of whether the agency publishes them on social media; he also said there is currently no intention to go back and remove previous posts. 

Water shortage

Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said she’s planning on attending tonight’s City of Alachua Planning and Zoning Board meeting, where a special exception permit for Tara April will be considered. Cornell said he would also be there. 

Wheeler said she was also concerned about water tables in general: “I’m looking at a pond that’s drying up and herons that are eating all the frogs and the turtles that are there. And I don’t know if we have any kind of an alert going out, in terms of water conservation, at this point.”

Cornell said the Water District is “anticipating, at a minimum, three to four more months of drought conditions, and they – the District – are attributing that to — I think they’re allowed to say this at the state level – climate change: the heating up of the atmosphere is causing more evaporation.”

The Suwannee River Water Management District issued a water shortage advisory today. The District’s release did not mention climate change or evaporation; it said the advisory followed “a year of below-average rainfall across North Florida.”

Truth and Reconciliation presentation for FAC

Wheeler said she also saw that FAC (the Florida Association of Counties) is asking for presentations for upcoming meetings, and she suggested a presentation on the County’s Truth and Reconciliation Project: “That is so amazingly wonderful. Do we dare?”

Cornell responded, “Yeah, we dare. I would dare. I would think that’s a great one to think about.” Cornell deferred to Chestnut, who has “kind of led the charge” on the project, but he said he would he happy to make the presentation if Chestnut didn’t plan to go to the FAC meeting. 

The County has completed all the requirements to qualify for a plaque from the Equal Justice Initiative, but they have not yet received the plaque. Commissioner Mary Alford suggested that a presentation might “jar them into action.” Chestnut said he would be taking a field trip to EJI in February and would speak to them about it. He said the trip, scheduled for February 6-8, will include several County staff members and some university students. Cornell said he would be going to Miami that weekend with Gainesville City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker to look at cultural arts centers. 

Site clearing at NE Waldo Road and NE 39th Avenue

Wheeler asked about the trees being cut down at the corner of NE Waldo Road and NE 39th Avenue, and County Manager Michele Lieberman said it is part of the work on the U.S. Army Reserve equipment concentration site, but “we had some issues with… an encampment in there, so I think that’s part of the reason that they cleared a lot of that out.” Wheeler said, “It looks pretty raw, at this point. It’s pretty scary-looking.” Lieberman said, “It’s the clean-up that they’re doing of where it’s become all overgrown. There was a lot in there.”

Library cards for jail inmates

Prizzia said she also wanted to draw attention to the fact that jail inmates cannot get a library card, even though there is a library branch at the jail. She said, “[Inmates] don’t actually have tablets at the moment, but we’re working on getting the tablet access,” and they would need a library card number to get access to library resources on their tablets. She continued, “It seems like, especially once you get out, even if you have fines and fees, getting to the library and being able to use those resources could help you get a job or solve the problem you have for those fines and fees. So if we could just look into that, that would be great.”

Jail phone system

After Prizzia praised the Sheriff for holding a job fair at the jail, Wheeler asked Prizzia if anybody had talked to her about the phone system while she was visiting the jail. Prizzia responded, “I mean, I’ve talked to the Sheriff and the Undersheriff about it,… I mean, if you’re referring to the article that was written…,” and Wheeler interrupted, “No. No, I’m not. I’m referring to the folks who are actually trying to supervise people using the phones,… and I have some of the same concerns that they do about all of that.” She did not specify her concerns, and after some discussion about the schedule for the next update from the Sheriff, the meeting was adjourned.