{"id":85260,"date":"2025-07-23T06:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T06:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85260\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T06:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T06:44:10","slug":"sheriff-waters-addresses-questions-at-town-hall-about-viral-arrest-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85260\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff Waters addresses questions at town hall about viral arrest video"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Tuesday night\u2019s town hall, held in District 4 on Jacksonville\u2019s Westside, marked Sheriff T.K. Waters\u2019 first public appearance since Monday\u2019s news conference, where he announced that officers involved in the viral arrest of William McNeil Jr.<\/a> would not face criminal charges.<\/p>\n

Waters faced the community members at the First Coast Baptist Church to talk about decreased murder rates, crime prevention and public concerns about a viral video showing a controversial February traffic stop that has sparked nationwide attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to understand that there is access, and I want people to understand that I actually love this community and everybody in it,\u201d Waters told attendees at his third town hall of the year.<\/p>\n

The meeting occurred hours after activists gathered outside the downtown courthouse<\/a>, demanding increased transparency from the sheriff\u2019s office regarding the February 19 incident.<\/p>\n

Watch the full town hall below:<\/p>\n

While the State Attorney\u2019s Office has cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing, Waters emphasized that an administrative review remains active. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you betray this badge \u2014 if you do something that breaks a law, we will arrest you for it,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n

Waters explained that the incident will undergo a thorough review process, noting he maintains the authority to request additional investigation if needed.<\/p>\n

At the town hall, community members submitted written questions directly to the sheriff and his staff, focusing on investigation procedures and departmental transparency. <\/p>\n

Waters emphasized his commitment to thorough review processes and public disclosure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have 180 days to finish the investigation when it comes to administrative rules, but we want to get it done as quickly as possible so that we can notify the public of what we come up with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That timeline would call for a final report by mid-January.<\/p>\n

Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey detailed the administrative review process, noting that serious violations could result in termination. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sheriff has the right to go all the way to the top to termination. If they do something and it is bad enough that we decide they can no longer be part of this agency, then we terminate them,\u201d Coarsey said.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Waters released body camera footage of the incident<\/a>, aiming to provide the full encounter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want to do is offer accurate information so that people can actually see in context what happened from start to finish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And the sheriff acknowledged that public opinion might remain divided on the incident. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am not foolish enough to believe that everyone\u2019s just going to jump on a side. But I am smart enough to believe that reasonable people, logical people, that see an entire incident from beginning to end in context \u2014 will understand that a lot more took place there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Tuesday night\u2019s town hall, held in District 4 on Jacksonville\u2019s Westside, marked Sheriff T.K. Waters\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":85261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,7310,8423,55137,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-85260","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-jso","14":"tag-sheriff-t-k-waters","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114901199415672251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85260","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=85260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}