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| Will Jeffries | |
| Portrayed by | Thom Barry |
| First Appearance | Look Again |
| Status | Alive |
Will Jeffries has been in Homicide for longer than anyone else.
His childhood home life was was suggested to be an abusive one, however he was a talented football player until he injured his knee senior year, putting an end to any hope of playing professionally. At sixteen, he was caught stealing by store owner Henry "Pops" Walters, who put him to work in his store as penance. Pops would help Jeffries put his life on a better track.
Will is a country music fan, even working as a radio DJ in college. Will was married to Mary Jeffries for several years. He would later recall they had some difficulty after he returned from Vietnam.
Mary was killed in a hit and run in 1995 while changing a tire on the road. Ever since this, he has become very involved in Road Safety. He was told who the prime suspect was in his wife’s death. On that night – exactly nine years after losing his wife, he went to find the man, Isaac Keller. He dragged the man outside an empty bar and held his gun to the man’s head. He forced the man to tell him exactly why he did it and said that he had no right to live. He then realised that this wasn’t the right way out and left the scene.
He has been investigating cold cases for many years, and especially enjoys tending to those cases where the black community has become the victims. One case especially stands out for him. When he was just a young boy, he stumbled across the body of Zeke Williams. But as time back then had it, he could not tell anyone as this would automatically make him the prime suspect, and being a black man, he had tough racial discrimination against him. The case went unsolved for 30 years, until one day, Will decided to open the case again, and soon it was solved for good.
Will is second in charge of the squad and takes this responsibility very seriously. He has had a number of opportunities to show his true colours. This did cause a few problems however. In one particular case, with Will in charge, the team disagreed with each other quite a lot. He was forced to get to know each other separately. He knew who was better at what kind of job and who got along with whom. Altogether, this did not only help him in the long run, but the whole team.
He is very close with Lt. John Stillman. They have worked together for a long time. Lately, he has befriended Det. Nick Vera. The two are partners for most of the time and even though Nick does get on his nerves, the two are very good friends.
Overall, Will is a shy person. He still has not removed his wedding ring. Det. Vera and Valens are urging him to get out into the dating world again, but he refuses every time. He was once happy with his wife, and he does not want to lose her loving memory. However, over the last few cases, he has had a few women after him. He is quite confused over this, but is willing to see where this will go. He feels very uncomfortable when Nick questions him about this, and denies that it is a date – almost as though it is the wrong thing to do.
Detective Will Jeffries takes the law very seriously. He will do everything in his power to put the culprit behind bars. When working on one particular case, Will became so angry with ADA William Danner, who wrongfully put Andre Tibbs behind on death row, he punched him in the head.