ORLANDO, Fla. — A veteran city of Orlando employee is behind bars accused of having child pornography on his city-issued computer, officials said Thursday.
According to an affidavit, Bruce Hossfield, who has worked for the city of Orlando for the last 32 years, retired from his position on Wednesday, the same day investigators arrested him.
Officials said the investigation started inside City Hall where the city's Internet activity and content is filtered, preventing certain categories of websites.
Websites that don't meet the blocked or prohibited category can be viewed, but a record is kept of each of those viewings.
Nathan Strack, an engineer at Channel 9, explains how a content-filtering application for the web, which many companies use to restrict certain sites, red-flagged repeated visits to the Russian website from City Hall.
"It's to protect the company but it's also to make sure people aren't going to things they shouldn't be going to," said Strack. "Everything, every website you go to, it monitors."
Officials traced the activity to Hossfield's computer on the sixth-floor.
In the review of Hossfield's Internet activity, investigators found a high amount of visits to a Russian website that contained child porn, authorities said.
Investigators seized Hossfield's work computer and a laptop from his home, where they also said they found child pornography.
Investigators said Hossfield had visited the site hundreds of times since 2013.
Detectives said they also found seven thumb drives on Hossfield's desk that contained multiple explicit photographs of children in sexual positions.
The long-time city employee was recognized by the mayor and City Council for 25 years of "outstanding and valuable" service to the city of Orlando in 2007.
He's now being held in the Orange County Jail on 10 counts of possessing child porn.
Because Hossfield hasn't been convicted of anything, he'll walk away with his retirement despite the troubling allegations against him.