Glory Reitz
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) opened a new precinct Wednesday in Newberry, the third since Sheriff Emery Gainey took office in October.
“We’ve always had a very close working relationship with Newberry and the city commissioners and the people out here,” Gainey said in an interview. “We know that that’s just going to continue, but to be closer and more accessible to them… having a physical location has made us more of a part of the community.”
The substation serves as a place for ACSO staff to talk to citizens about incidents, away from noise and the outdoors, but close to home. He said after a shooting left a teenaged boy dead on Saturday, investigators had to take people “all the way to the other side of town” to interview them.
Gainey said Newberry is a unique and tight-knit community, and the new substation is a good place to mark ACSO’s expansion into the far west of the county.
“Newberry and ASO’s relationship is really special,” Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe said in an interview. “And having a precinct right here in our hometown solidifies that relationship. It’s a visible presence that gives our residents comfort and ease.”
For years, Newberry had considered launching its own police force, driven by the rising price of its contract with ACSO. The option is still on the table if the city decides to take that route in the future, but Marlowe said having a sheriff who cares about and believes in Newberry’s community pushes thoughts of a Newberry police department further into the future.
“When we have this strong of a relationship, there really isn’t a whole lot of consideration for having a Newberry police department,” Marlowe said. “So I hope that relationship continues to be strong. Coming out and being here in our community like this shows us how much you care about us.”
The space provided is the largest yet of the precincts ACSO has opened in recent months, including in Hawthorne and at Butler Plaza in Gainesville. Gainey has said he plans to expand into substations across the county, but Newberry’s may be the first one to be staffed full-time for regular business hours.
The substation, at 22211 West Newberry Road, is provided by the city of Newberry at no cost to ACSO, sublet from Todd Russo and Billy Beltz. Gainey said the larger space, along with the relatively large population of Newberry, make the substation a likely candidate to be first on the list to fully staff.
The regular operational hours will not start in the immediate future, but Gainey said he hopes to make the shift in the next five or six months, eventually staffing all substations as ACSO staffing increases.
The sheriff’s office had 248 open positions when Gainey took his position in October, and since then he has hired 120 people. With some attrition, Gainey said the office has brought in a net of 80 hires since October, with another 50 currently in the hiring process currently.
Gainey said he does not expect the staffing shortage to be fixed overnight, but his recruiting team is actively reaching out to high schools and military personnel who are looking to leave the service.
