Cops gone wild: Officer could lose his job over photo of him with his hands on woman's bare behind

He may be sworn to serve and protect, but this Georgia cop is being served with discipline that may cost him his job.

It comes after a racy photo intended to remain private made its way to the desk of veteran officer Thaddeus Lloyd's superiors.

The image shows Lloyd with his hands on a woman's bare buttocks as she dangles out of a squad car.

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Photo finished: This image has gotten Thaddeus Lloyd suspended from his job after it was found on a cell phone illegally obtained by an inmate

Lloyd is now a senior sheriff’s deputy with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, but was a Clarkston Police Department officer when the risqué snap was taken.

He claimed that the photo is 11 years old, but he can still be punished regardless of when the picture was taken.

Lloyd was suspended with pay last week and subject to an investigation by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council.

But perhaps what is more shocking about the photo scandal is how Lloyd got caught.

The image was found on a cell phone that had been illegally obtained by an inmate at a Georgia state prison.



Lloyd told WSBTV that the woman in the photo was a porn star performing at a local strip club that night, and he was not on duty at the time the picture had been taken.

Shamed: Lloyd claims the photo is 11 years old, but but he can still be punished regardless of when the picture was taken

He said: 'I regret it. I didn't know nothing about it'.



The Walton Tribune reported that the photo had also been posted on both MySpace and Facebook.

Walton Sheriff Joe Chapman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'I hate all this for that deputy, but you've got to live by what you do.'

Lloyd's case is one in a disturbing trend of officers putting their jobs on the line over what they post on social media sites.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the number of such cases has risen from just a few to more than 50 per year.