police

A gun-wielding robber who threatened to shoot a Jacksonville store clerk and fired at police during a chase Monday has been charged with eight felonies and is being held in jail without bail.

The pursuit started after police were called to a Dollar General Store robbery about 9:30 a.m. on the 6300 block of 103rd Street. A woman who worked at the store said a man who identified himself as a secret shopper lured her to the back of the store and demanded to get in the office.

She told police the man pulled a gun from his waistband and threatened to shoot her. The woman said she tried to close the door and hit her head when she jumped down some stairs.

Congratulations to the Green Cove Springs Police Department for putting together their second Teen Summit, at the Jr High School.  I hope the kids who attended learned good life lessons. We appreciate that fact that the police department is keeping our kids in mind.   

It may be surprising for some of us to learn that the duties of the police do not just involve fighting crime, apprehending criminals, chasing thieves and other 'crime busting' duties, but include traffic control, dealing with community and social nuisance problems, attending sports/social events, crime prevention advice and many other less pressing tasks, in other words, 'order maintenance'. The police force as we know it today has changed radically from the first policemen that patrolled the streets in the 19th century and criminologists have recently played a large part in influencing police strategies. Recently, a return back to the early days of maintaining order has seemed to have emerged with the appearance of the 'broken windows' theory, an approach to policing that emphasizes creating and maintaining orderly public spaces, suggesting that continuing urban decay of a community will lead to higher levels of crime and disorder.