HOLLY HILL, Fla. – The monthslong investigation into four Holly Hill police employees has finished, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which conducted the investigation.
The police chief and a captain resigned shortly after the investigation started, but two sergeants are still on administrative leave amid the allegations of “inappropriate incidents.”
While the findings aren’t public record yet, Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood told News 6 what he saw in it was “pretty shocking.”
The city manager has been given both the summary and findings and now has 45 days to decide how to move forward.
“If true, these things are pretty shocking, that leadership of a police organization would engage in this type of behavior,” Chitwood said.
The sheriff said over 30 people were interviewed in the investigation.
“All we did was do the interviews and then regurgitate and try to corroborate what was in those interviews and in a lot of cases we were able to corroborate them,” he said.
The city handed the investigation over to the sheriff’s office back in March so it would be impartial.
It came after allegations of inappropriate incidents from the four.
“Everybody has rogue cops, or rogue anything. Every profession has that. This is a little different, this is a culture,” the sheriff said.
City Manager Joe Forte told News 6 on Thursday he has the investigation, he’s going to start reading it, and hopes to have an answer soon.
“I intend to take some swift and decisive actions depending on what that summary tells me,” he said.
During the investigation, the sheriff’s office was also running the law enforcement in the city. Now, deputies have pulled out and the former Holly Hill police chief Mark Barker is serving as the interim chief.
Forte said many current officers and city employees are determined to rebuild the department.
“My hope is that when we hire a permanent police chief, that new chief is going to be a change agent and that change agent is going to come in here, hire a captain that’s going to be an appropriate respectful captain and they’re going to change the culture in this agency,” he said.
After the 45-day period, the findings of this investigation will become public record.
The sheriff said the FDLE is still investigating to see if any criminal actions were taken.
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