JSO: 20-year veteran officer arrested, accused of lying about working security at a local business

Jacksonville, FL — A complaint from a local business leads to the arrest of a 20-year veteran officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Undersheriff Pat Ivey announcing the arrest of Officer Steven Brown for one count of official misconduct and one count of petit theft.

"This stems from Officer Brown claiming that he worked secondary employment-- which are jobs that officers work in an off-duty capacity-- when he actually didn't work. So, he was being compensated by a company and claiming that he was working hours in which he was not," explains Ivey.

Ivey says the misdemeanor charge of petit theft stems from one singular day, but he says there are several other days that were found during their investigation. Ivey says as the case moves forward, the petit theft charge could be upgraded to grand theft, which would be a felony.

As for the official misconduct charge, Ivey says that stems from Officer Brown allegedly manipulating one of their systems to give the appearance that he was actually working security at this business and not in violation.

JSO says the business had noticed that Officer Brown had not shown up and made the official complaint.

Brown's arrest marks the 7th JSO employee arrested in 2018. 10 employees were arrested in all of 2017.

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