![\"William](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-13-at-12.47.51-PM.png\")
A screenshot of the body camera footage from the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s office used as an exhibit in the 4th Circuit Office of the State Attorney released August 13, 2025.<\/p>\nA screenshot of the body camera footage from the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s office used as an exhibit in the 4th Circuit Office of the State Attorney released August 13, 2025.<\/p>\n
The controversial traffic stop of a motorist who refused to open his car door or window to Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s deputies \u2013 an encounter that has recently renewed a longstanding debate about JSO\u2019s treatment of Black residents \u2013 stemmed in part from the department\u2019s vague use-of-force policy that gives individual officers broad discretion to use violence at the first sign of resistance, according to experts who spoke with The Tributary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those experts also unanimously agreed that Officer Donald Bowers should have reported his hit to the face of William McNeil Jr. after he smashed the car\u2019s window to drag McNeil out of the car. That open-handed hit was not disclosed in either the police report or response-to-resistance report Bowers completed after McNeil\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
Video of McNeil Jr.\u2019s February traffic stop and arrest went viral this summer, after McNeil released footage taken from his cell phone, which was mounted on his dashboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-13-at-12.48.09-PM.png\")
In this screenshot from an investigative report from the 4th Circuit Office of the State Attorney, Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office Officer D. Bowers is seen hitting William McNeil, Jr. in the head.<\/p>\n
The footage shows Bowers smash McNeil\u2019s window and hit the visibly calm 22-year-old man in the face before unbuckling and dragging him to the ground with the aid of multiple officers called in as backup. Facing criticism over the dashboard footage, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office released Bowers\u2019s bodycam video and argued it contained crucial context that was absent from McNeil\u2019s cellphone footage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Waters and State Attorney Melissa Nelson, whose office cleared Bowers of any criminal wrongdoing during the stop, have lamented what they\u2019ve characterized as disinformation that has spread in the wake of McNeil\u2019s cellphone footage spreading on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere absolutely was force used by the arresting officers, and yes, that force is ugly,\u201d Sheriff T.K. Waters said when he released the footage. \u201cBut as I\u2019ve said many times before, the reality is that all force, all violence, is ugly. And just because force is ugly does not mean it\u2019s unlawful or contrary to policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the February stop, according to the bodycam video, McNeil refused Bowers\u2019s multiple commands to leave the vehicle. Video shows that, instead, McNeil asked Bowers multiple times to \u201ccall your supervisor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bowers also told McNeil he initiated the stop because McNeil was driving in the rain without headlights \u2013 a rarely cited infraction<\/a>, according to traffic data. While bodycam footage shows raindrops on McNeil\u2019s vehicle, it wasn\u2019t raining at the time Bowers bodycam video began.<\/p>\n The Tributary requested any available dashcam footage from Bowers\u2019s vehicle, but the agency said there was none available.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bowers later told investigators that he had another reason for stopping McNeil, which he didn\u2019t reveal during the traffic stop: McNeil was seen\u00a0 leaving an alleged drug house that was under surveillance<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bowers wrote in a \u201cresponse-to-resistance\u201d form that he punched McNeil in the face after pulling him out of the vehicle because McNeil \u201cattempted to walk away from officers,\u201d though video footage doesn\u2019t appear to show that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Left out of Bowers\u2019s report was any mention of an open-handed initial strike<\/a> he landed on McNeil\u2019s face after breaking the car window. While the hit was clearly shown on McNeil\u2019s own video, the JSO body-camera footage doesn\u2019t clearly show that hit, which Bowers landed just before dragging McNeil out of the SUV.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bowers told investigators that he was trained to use a \u201cdistraction strike\u201d in such circumstances, and for that reason, he didn\u2019t think it necessary to list it in his use-of-force report.\u00a0<\/p>\n State Attorney Melissa Nelson\u2019s office concluded that Bowers, who has more than a dozen commendations in his personnel file, did not commit any crime during the stop. A separate internal review handled by JSO to determine if Bowers broke department policy is ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Tributary sent three criminal justice experts a copy of the department\u2019s use-of-force policy, the state attorney\u2019s report and Bowers\u2019s report to review. All agreed that Bowers should have reported the initial \u201cdistraction strike.\u201d<\/p>\n Ayesha Bell Hardaway, a professor at Cleveland\u2019s Case Western Reserve University<\/a> and director of the school\u2019s Social Justice Institute, noted the 26-page policy doesn\u2019t outline reporting requirements until page 25 \u2013 and that it seems to require reporting the use of force only when injuries are inflicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPolicies are designed to provide officers with instruction on what their obligations are as law enforcement officers, as public employees, and this [policy] didn\u2019t necessarily do that in a cogent way,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Force as a tool<\/strong><\/p>\n After reviewing the state attorney\u2019s summary of the stop and JSO\u2019s use-of-force policy, Bell Hardaway said she still didn\u2019t understand the justification for Bowers leaving it out of his report.<\/p>\n The policy, she said, stipulates that any use of force that results in an injury must be reported. McNeil suffered a broken tooth, concussion, and a traumatic brain injury during the arrest, according to his attorneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n She and other experts said Bowers\u2019s assertion that the hit was a proper means to an end was irrelevant to whether it had to be reported, since any use of force is presumably tactical.<\/p>\n \u201cThe State Attorney\u2019s Office goes through great lengths in their report to sort of justify the officer\u2019s behavior,\u201d she said. \u201cThis type of circular logic is exactly how law enforcement avoids being held accountable, and it sends a message to officers that even in instances where the officer may be completely justified in the decision-making, that if they decide to not follow the rules of the policies, there won\u2019t be any consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Gene Paoline, a criminal justice professor<\/a> at the University of Central Florida, has studied and compared the use-of-force policies at 662 police departments<\/a> and presented his and his co-author\u2019s findings at the 2018 International Association of Chiefs of Police meeting in Orlando, where a former JSO undersheriff also gave a presentation.<\/p>\n JSO\u2019s policy<\/a>, he said, does not require that every single instance of force be reported, unless a stun gun, pepper spray or firearm was used. However, there\u2019s no standard for how to write a use-of-force policy, and they vary by department.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, Paoline said Orlando has a much stricter threshold for when officers must report any level of force than Jacksonville does. Some departments, he said, consider handcuffing a suspect a type of force.\u00a0<\/p>\n Given the stricter threshold, it could give the false impression that Orlando police use force much more often than Jacksonville does simply because of its reporting requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis policy definitely gives you the leeway to use multiple types of force as soon as the person shows any kind of resistance,\u201d he said of JSO\u2019s standard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Unlike many other departments, JSO does not have a \u201cuse-of-force continuum\u201d rule, which allows officers to use greater levels of force in proportion to the level of violence used by a suspect. The continuum gives cops more direction than JSO\u2019s policy, which instead \u201cbasically lets the officer use their own discretion,\u201d Paoline said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a 2023 interview with The Tributary \u2013 conducted in the wake of a different controversial and violent arrest \u2013 Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey said JSO\u2019s policy falls in line with Florida Department of Law Enforcement standards, which he said stopped recommending a use-of-force continuum about a decade ago.<\/p>\n JSO did not respond to a request for an interview on the handling of McNeil\u2019s traffic stop except to ask which quotes The Tributary planned to use from the 2023 interview with Coarsey.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jacksonville uses an \u201cobjective reasonableness model,\u201d which is a standard that focuses on whether another officer in the same situation would have believed the use of force was justified, considering the information available to officers at the time force was used. In 2020, the Florida Police Chiefs Association convened a subcommittee on accountability and societal change that released recommendations on use-of-force policies<\/a>, which included input from nine Florida police chiefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The finalized report said that either objective reasonableness or a continuum is an acceptable standard for policies, as long as they are \u201cproperly drafted.\u201d When the report was published, there was about a 50\/50 split of Florida departments regarding which model is used.<\/p>\n Mike Benza, another Case Western Reserve University professor, said he didn\u2019t see any issues with how the Jacksonville policy is written \u2013 but he agreed the \u201cdiscretionary strike\u201d Bowers landed on McNeil should\u2019ve been reported.He also questioned whether the strike was reasonable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Fourth Amendment says that officers are only allowed to use the amount of force necessary to either protect themselves or protect others or to conduct their lawful business,\u201d he said, emphasizing that the state attorney\u2019s investigation \u2013 which looks for potential crimes \u2013 is separate from the department\u2019s investigation into policy violations.<\/p>\n Bell Hardaway added that the Jacksonville policy \u201cgoes to great lengths to create cover for officers to use force without specifically identifying the philosophy of the principles behind the use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n How JSO reviews cases<\/strong><\/p>\n JSO rarely finds that its officers have violated the use-of-force policy.<\/p>\n For example, in 2022, JSO opened 125 investigations into allegations of unnecessary use of force. Of those, 108 allegations did not move past an initial review. Of the 17 that did<\/a>, none of the allegations were sustained, according to the department\u2019s data.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, there were 135 allegations of unnecessary use of force<\/a> and two complaints were sustained.<\/p>\n Coarsey, addressing the 2022 numbers, said every use-of-force incident is heavily reviewed, a process that involves the officer\u2019s direct supervisor, the watch commander, and then the professional oversight unit, which is separate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s something that is either out of policy, or in question, or maybe needs to be looked at by internal affairs or the integrity unit, then it goes up the chain, all the way to the director,\u201d Coarsey said. \u201cHe then decides if it will go to the response to resistance board, or if it\u2019s going to integrity. So there are a lot of eyes that look at every single report.\u201d<\/p>\n In that 2023 conversation, Coarsey admonished a journalist with The Tributary for using the term \u201cbeat\u201d in a story that described the actions of multiple officers who kicked and punched a 28-year-old man 17 times after he ran away from a traffic stop. The man, Le\u2019Kien Woods, suffered a closed head injury, a ruptured kidney and reportedly peed blood as a result of the arrest, according to his attorneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to be factual, and you want to put it out there to the people in this county, what the facts are, it\u2019s less than 1%,\u201d Coarsey said regarding how often force is used during police contacts with the public in 2023. \u201cIt\u2019s 2% of people that are arrested.\u201dAccording to JSO\u2019s data, that percentage of use of force<\/a> against people who were arrested rose to 3% in 2024.<\/p>\n Nichole Manna is The Tributary\u2019s senior investigative reporter. You can reach her at nichole.manna@jaxtrib.org.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A screenshot of the body camera footage from the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s office used as an exhibit in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,7310,16047,8423,7207,16049,314,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-161849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-duval-county","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-jacksonville-sheriffs-office","14":"tag-jso","15":"tag-police","16":"tag-state-attorney","17":"tag-traffic","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115062720656016365","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}