Gainesville City Commission hears updates on crime rates and GPD’s management of protests, votes to moves forward with change in how City Commission vacancies are filled

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the February 5 Gainesville City Commission meeting, Commissioners heard presentations from GPD and GFR, and Chief Nelson Moya discussed GPD’s management of a recent protest that closed a major road. During Commission Comment, they voted to move forward with a proposal by Commissioner Bryan Eastman that would allow the City Commission to appoint a City Commissioner to fill a vacancy until the next election.

Crime data

Gainesville Police Department (GPD) Chief Nelson Moya presented the quarterly crime data, which showed an overall decrease in crime rates but included a 68% increase in rape from the same quarter last year and an increase of 8% for the year as a whole. Moya said, “I still believe that some of that has to do with reporting mechanisms,” and he added that the department’s goal is for victims to feel comfortable coming forward. Moya said GPD and the University of Florida Police Department are working proactively “because there’s a lot of behaviors that we have identified, particularly around campus, that cause concern. And so we feel that if we attack it all, eventually this metric will go down.”

Moya continued, “We discovered that a lot of the reporting was being done through social media platforms, and we sadly had to play catch-up, as we were hearing of some of these cases being reported mainly to each other. So you would see potentially a victim maybe report something to potentially another victim that had suffered something similar, and in so doing, sometimes we’re left out of that loop until we can catch up. So we’re looking at that closely. More to come.” 

Robberies decreased by 7%, aggravated assaults increased by 9%, and property crimes overall decreased by 21%, for an overall 16% drop in incidents. 

Click here to see the whole GPD presentation.

Gunshot detection pilot

Major Jaime Kurnick said GPD is partnering with UF and the Loss Prevention Research Council on retail theft, “and one of their partners is FLOCK… In our community, in many of our Walmarts, CVS, Walgreens, they have anti-theft detection technology that they’re testing… to implement on a nationwide level. One of the things that we are partnering with them on is some gunshot detection devices that can be implemented in a community.” She said gunshot detection devices are placed on either a light pole or a pole owned by FLOCK, and the devices alert law enforcement if a gunshot is detected. She continued, “It’s just to send that information quicker to the department, at this time, and… I promise, this is at no cost to us. The Gainesville Police Department is not spending any money to put in this technology.” She said they’re putting 27 sensors in a six- to eight-block radius, “most likely somewhere in and around University Avenue.” She said GPD believes this will be “a benefit to us and a benefit to the community, to get that information quicker to us.”

Update on January 14 homicide and officer-involved shooting

Moya also addressed the officer-involved shooting on January 14 and said the officers are still on administrative leave and are recovering, both physically and mentally. Moya said, “We’re still dealing with the other part of the investigation that’s still complex, a lot of things that are still unknown. Sadly, there’s a great degree that points toward the randomness of the selection [of the homicide victim], which makes it scary, right? But we’re still working through that.”

Regarding national controversies about law enforcement, Moya said, “We, too, see the news, … and we watch it carefully because we often learn from what we see. In fact, it reinforces our protocols, our training mandates. And so, the message is: in this community as we move forward, this organization, along with our local partners, are going to protect our community. Despite the delivery of the laws and ordinances, whether they’re state or local or federal, our mandate will and shall always be to protect our community.”

January 30 protest that closed parts of University Avenue

Moya also spoke about the protest on January 30 that took over portions of University Avenue between 13th Street and Bo Diddley Park: “This past Friday, we had an expression that resulted in a march that was ultimately peaceful and ended at Bo Diddley Plaza. That march amassed quickly for us. There’s a lot of things that go into that that I will share with you. In our community, there’s a lot of dialogue that happens before that happens. Seldom are we surprised by a gathering, and we like that, because it gives us the time to have conversation, exchange of ideas, sometimes negotiation, and believe it or not, concessions. On Friday, we made such a concession, and that concession was to give up University Avenue, a portion of it, for what I consider a nominal amount of time. We did that really quick, in great consideration of the public safety impact.”

Chief Moya: “On Friday, we made such a concession, and that concession was to give up University Avenue, a portion of it, for what I consider a nominal amount of time. We did that really quick, in great consideration of the public safety impact… I assure this community as well that I’m not going to allow our streets to be taken over irresponsibly.”

Moya said that officers were able to de-escalate potential violence during the march: “The reality is that a crowd may quickly have a narrative to it, but through our engagement and through our concession and negotiation, that narrative may soon neutralize itself, focus on [the main issue], and de-escalate any rhetoric or narrative of violence or hatred. Such was the case Friday. There were some chants there that were not healthy for our community, for our agency, but those chants went away… quickly because there was communication, engagement, and ultimately a concession.”

Moya continued, “I assure this community as well that I’m not going to allow our streets to be taken over irresponsibly. That was done after careful examination of other alternate routes for other emergency vehicles and egress into our neighborhoods, so in the event that someone is having a medical emergency, we can still get to them timely.” 

Moya concluded, “What I care for is the results, and the results are, there was zero physical interaction, zero expressions of hatred… There was none of that here, and there was an expression of the First Amendment, which I support dearly, but it brings into play concessions, and it’s very subjective, and it’s very quick… Great leadership delivers that process that you saw on Friday, and we stand behind it.” 

Mayor Harvey Ward responded, “I can’t commend you enough… I’ve had nothing but good comments from the community. I actually had a person reach out and say, ‘I really wanted to be mad at GPD, but I’m so glad they were there.’ This is a community that expresses its First Amendment rights pretty regularly and with aplomb, and there is a way to react to that that keeps everyone safe and respects everyone’s rights, and the business of the community goes on the way that it does, and that could go sideways easily, but it has not in Gainesville because our public safety professionals… take our rights very, very seriously.”

Moya encouraged the public to “look at our faces” as they engage with officers when they’re on duty, and if that happens, “I’m pretty sure we’ll all be fine.”

Ward concluded the morning session by saying, “Thank you once again to everyone involved with our law enforcement public safety efforts. I’m really, really pleased with the direction that our city is heading in that regard. Thank you.” 

Gainesville Fire Rescue update

During the afternoon session, Commissioners heard the Gainesville Fire Rescue Quarterly Update (click here for the full presentation). Chief Shawn Hillhouse said the average turnout time, which is the time needed from dispatch to getting into the truck, is 36 seconds, with District 1 at 35 seconds and District 2 at 37 seconds; The national metric for turnout time is one minute.

Hillhouse said the national benchmark for travel time in an urban area is four minutes; the District 1 travel time is five minutes, and the District 2 travel time is 5:15, for a department average of 5:08. This puts the department’s total average response time at 5:44, just above the national benchmark of five minutes. 

Plans for fire stations

Hillhouse said Station 9 is expected to break ground in May/June 2026 near HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, and City staff are working on the design for the new Station 3, which will be located at 1300 NE 8th Avenue, the current site of Safety City.

Chief Operating Officer Brian Singleton said the old fire administration buildings at 8th and Waldo are in the process of being demolished now. The new fire stations are primarily funded by Streets, Stations, and Strong Foundations, the City’s program for infrastructure surtax funds.

After a presentation about the Community Resource Paramedicine Program, the Medication-Assisted Treatment Program, ImpactGNV (the City’s gun violence prevention program), and Community First (outreach to specific neighborhoods led by specific City employees), Mayor Ward said, “Ten years ago, If we had an update like this, it would be primarily about the fire side of Gainesville Fire Rescue. We had a great report on the fire side, but sometimes… that looks like… rescuing people and putting them on a better path, and giving them… the hand up that they need to have a better life… We haven’t lost sight of the core mission, but that core mission can be interpreted lots of different ways these days. I’m really, really, really pleased with all the people that we have on board doing that.”

Proposal to fill City Commission vacancies

During Commission Comment, Commissioner Bryan Eastman said the City’s Charter has some ambiguity about how a vacancy would be filled if a City Commissioner were suspended by the Governor. He said, “It is a priority of mine that that be filled locally and not by the Governor.” Eastman made a motion to direct the City Attorney to return with language for a potential Charter revision that ensures that any vacancy on the City Commission, for any reason, is filled locally. Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut seconded the motion.

City Attorney Daniel Nee said the Charter “calls for the Commission to call a Special Election as expeditiously as possible” in the event of a vacancy, for any reason; he added, “Elections just don’t happen overnight; we’ve seen that.” He said there was some discussion about four years ago about a Charter amendment that would enable the remaining Commissioners to appoint a Commissioner to the vacant seat until an election could be held, but that did not move forward. 

The motion passed 6-0, with Commissioner James Ingle absent for medical reasons.