Details were released Wednesday after an internal investigation resulted in claims of sexual misconduct at the Lakeland Police Department.
According to a report, the three-month investigation revealed alleged sexual misconduct by a number of City of Lakeland employees, including senior leadership officers at the Lakeland Police Department.
In March, the department was initially made aware of possible misconduct by a number of city employees during a disciplinary interview with a long-term female civilian employee in conjunction with another internal investigation involving a former officer.
As a result of her allegations, an internal administrative investigation was started into the sexual misconduct claims.
The investigation reveals at least 10 officers allegedly had inappropriate sex or were engaged in sexually suggestive behavior with a female civilian employee during the past seven years.
According to the woman, some of the sexual encounters happened at LPD headquarters, others with on duty officers in LPD vehicles.
One reported encounter even took place inside the vacant Without Walls sanctuary in north Lakeland. There are also allegations the officers and the woman sent each other explicit pictures while at LPD.
In one case the report claims, Captain John Thomason, who later became the department's public information officer, sent a picture of his genitals to the woman.
The woman also claims some other sexual encounters weren't really consensual and that fellow employees didn't report the accusations of misconduct.
Lakeland Police Chief Lisa Womack said she asked for the investigation when she heard about the scandal.
"There is not a culture of corruption,” Womack said. “There is a culture of professionalism. We are doing everything we can and each and every time something has been brought to my attention it has been dealt with appropriately as this will be too."
This is the latest in a series of problems for LPD. They include an officer seen on dashcam video asking a woman to shake her bra as a search tactic in a traffic stop, a grand jury investigation into public records requests and an officer accused of sloppy paperwork in drunk driving cases to name a few.
On March 25, the Lakeland Police Department contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement following a request from LPD Chief Lisa Womack to conduct an inquiry.
In April, the State's Attorney's Office started their own investigation based on FDLE's initial findings. State Attorney Jerry Hill released a summary of the report to the department Tuesday.
In a statement, the city of Lakeland said it is taking the charges very seriously and will discipline those who have violated policy, and a full update will be given once the internal investigation is concluded.
Hill sees the problems at LPD as being so severe he came just short of calling for Womack to be replaced.
"And you know you have got to start compartmentalizing at some point and say this is the big picture of what we are dealing with in Lakeland,” Hill said. “And if the Lakeland city commissioners and city manager are happy with that then so be it.”
Hill said no criminal charges will be brought against the officers because the evidence including dates of the allegations couldn't be confirmed but he felt like several officers had been untruthful and he wouldn't accept their testimony in court.