Jacksonville mayor says level of security and resources for GOP convention are inadequate

The mayor of Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday backed up Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams’s assessment that the security plans for the Republican National Convention are inadequate, saying that he needed reassurance that law enforcement would have the necessary resources to secure the convention. 

“Any event, anything we put on in the city of Jacksonville, I have to have my sheriff telling me it can be done,” Lenny Curry, a Republican who is also involved in planning the August convention, told reporters on a video call Tuesday. 

Curry said that he needed Williams to assure him that “he has the resources he needs and that it can be done in a safe and responsible way.”

Curry’s remarks came a day after Williams said that he had not yet seen an adequate security plan for the convention and that the existing proposal “is not achievable right now.”

Curry did not say specifically what needed to be done to quell law enforcement’s concerns about the convention, but said that there was a common interest in obtaining “the resources needed for the law enforcement.”

The scramble for a security plan only adds to the challenges convention planners face as they barrel toward the Aug. 24-27 gathering in Jacksonville. Florida has experienced an explosion of coronavirus cases in recent weeks, adding more cases to its tally in the last week than any other state.

At the same time, nationwide protests over racial injustice and police brutality have added to concerns about security at the Republican National Convention. 

The Republican National Committee announced last week that it would scale back its convention in Jacksonville, limiting attendance during the first couple days of the gathering to convention delegates. On the final day of the convention, when President Trump delivers his acceptance speech, those delegates will be allowed to bring one guest and alternate delegates will be allowed to attend.

Still, the scaled back gathering will be a far cry from the full-scale, in-person convention that Trump has pushed for.

The event was originally going to be held in Charlotte, N.C., but Trump and GOP officials chose to move large parts of the convention to Jacksonville after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) advised the party to plan for a downsized gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic.