Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office
A Florida sheriff’s office has launched an internal investigation into one of its own officers who’s been accused of sharing racist tweets online, including one post that insisted Black people were among “America’s biggest problems.”
On Tuesday, Jacksonville Sheriff Pat Ivey told local news outlet First Coast News that the department was looking into social media posts linked to Sgt. Douglas Howell, a member of the force’s gang investigations unit. Depending on the outcome of the probe, the sheriff told the network that the officer could be reprimanded. The officer’s Twitter account was locked after the messages were publicly addressed by the police department.
“The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is currently in the midst of an active administrative investigation related to multiple reports of an employee allegedly posting disparaging material on a personal social media account,” Ivey told First Coast News in a statement. “I have asked that our Internal Affairs Unit look into these allegations. Detectives have begun working in their attempts to verify whether these posts are legitimate and most important, determine whether the individual responsible for the posts may be a JSO employee.”