Scott County Sheriff Tony Hampton has announced that Deputy Keith Gibson did violate department policy, and will be disciplined.
Earlier this week, LEX 18 learned that posts by Deputy Gibson on his personal social media account were reported as offensive and unprofessional.
On Wednesday, Sheriff Hampton released a statement saying that the department was taking the allegations seriously and would be reviewed.
After the investigation, Sheriff Hampton says the department "concluded that Deputy Keith Gibson did violate policy by posting and sharing several inappropriate politically based pictures on his personal social media account."
In the statement below, the sheriff says that Gibson will be disciplined and required to attend remedial training on the issues identified by the investigation.
In regards to the investigation of social media post by one of our deputies, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office has concluded that Deputy Keith Gibson did violate policy by posting and sharing several inappropriate politically based pictures on his personal social media account. His posts were found to be detrimental to the mission, function and integrity of the Scott County Sheriff’s Office.
As a result of this conclusion of facts, the deputy will be disciplined and his discipline shall be implemented per the guidelines of our Code of Conduct Policy. We will also require him to attend remedial training on matters identified in our review. I have also directed my command staff to conduct agency-wide training on social media and the expectations for their behavior that are clearly defined in our policy.
As the Sheriff, I fully apologize to anyone who was offended by these posts and for any reduction in confidence in our agency that this deputies’ actions may have had on our great community. Georgetown-Scott County has always overwhelmingly supported our deputies and I ask that you continue to support us as move forward.
Unprofessional conduct that jeopardizes public trust, cannot and will not be tolerated. When actions by any employee creates division in that trust, discipline must be swift and appropriate. My office and the hard-working men and woman that I oversee, shall continue to represent every person and every segment of our community as we continue our mission.
