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First Coast Crime Stoppers appeals Public Service Grant score after portal glitch; seeks city help
Summary
First Coast Crime Stoppers told the Finance Committee it is appealing a tentative denial from the city's Public Service Grant program, saying a software glitch removed part of its application. The nonprofit asked council to request the grants division director to explain the scoring and to consider alternate funding while the appeal is pending.
Chase Robinson, executive director of First Coast Crime Stoppers, told the Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee on Oct. 7 that the nonprofit is appealing a tentative decline from the city's Public Service Grant (PSG) program after a software portal malfunction removed text from a key application section.
Robinson said First Coast Crime Stoppers has operated in Jacksonville since 2002 and relies on a mix of funding sources including a trust fund created under state statute. He told the committee the organization "promises and deliver[s] absolute anonymity by Florida statute" and credited anonymous tipsters with hundreds of arrests and thousands of cleared cases. "Without continued support, Crime Stoppers cannot sustain the level of support that Jacksonville needs," Robinson said.
Robinson told the committee that the portal error removed roughly 6,000 characters from one narrative section of the PSG application. He said the program was still scored in each section but that the truncated submission reduced the organization's overall score and left it the lowest-ranked applicant in the prevention-and-diversion category. He said the city-administered Crime Stoppers trust fund has also declined about 30% over the past 10 years and that the PSG award of $125,000 would be instrumental for outreach into high-crime ZIP codes.
Council members responded by asking the administration to explain the PSG process. Council Member Ron Salem (Group 2, at large) asked that Maribel Figueroa, director of the Grants and Contract Compliance division, appear at the next finance committee meeting to explain the scoring and any portal issues; the chair said he would request that appearance. Council Member Rory Diamond (District 13) praised Crime Stoppers' role in investigations, describing an instance in which community-provided tips led to an arrest and sentencing.
Committee members also asked about other funding options. Council Member Randy White (District 12) asked whether Community-Based Allocation (CBA) funds could be used; staff said CBA funds generally must be applied within a single district and that Crime Stoppers operates countywide, making a district-only CBA allocation difficult. Robinson said Crime Stoppers could not allocate or trace its roughly 3,000 tips this year to individual council districts because tips are submitted anonymously.
Robinson provided financial details to the committee: he said the organization's annual operating budget is about $500,000, that tipster rewards approved this year total roughly $93,000, and that the organization's average reward payout is about $350. He also summarized long-term outcomes tied to tips, including a multi-decade total of 65,000 tips, 4,600 arrests, and more than $20 million in drugs and stolen property recovered.
The committee agreed to request that the Grants and Contract Compliance director attend the next finance committee meeting and to monitor the outcome of Crime Stoppers' appeal of the PSG decision. No formal appropriation or emergency allocation was made at the Oct. 7 meeting.
Robinson closed by asking the city to sustain funding for Crime Stoppers' outreach and reward program, saying, "By supporting First Coast Crime Stoppers, you're not just funding a program. You're standing with every victim, every family, and every neighborhood that deserves safety."
