Officer charged with misconduct for not showing up for apartment security jobs, JSO says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office patrol officer has been charged with official misconduct, a third-degree felony, after investigators discovered he wasn’t showing up for secondary jobs he’d signed up for, Undersheriff Pat Ivey announced Wednesday.

Ivey said Officer Dennis W. Hampton, who has worked for JSO for 5½, chose not to resign after his arrest.

JSO will move to terminate him but that could take some time as they go through the process, Ivey said.

He said the Sheriffs’ Office received a complaint about Hampton on Jan. 19, and investigators discovered he was signing up for secondary employment -- extra jobs officers work for extra money -- but not showing up for the jobs. Ivey said Hampton’s work was as a security guard at apartment complexes.

They watched him for several weeks and learned he was doing this multiple times a week, Ivey said.

“When the individual who’s getting paid for those services doesn’t even show up for the work, I think that speaks for a lack of integrity,” Ivey said, adding that most officers who work secondary employment do what they’re supposed to do. “The public needs to know that it’s a few and far between behavior, but if we uncover it, this is what we do.”

More charges could be filed later, as the complexes determine how much money was paid to Hampton for work he didn’t do.

Hampton is the first officer arrested in 2022.