NASHVILLE, Tenn. --
The Channel 4 I-Team has learned that a Nashville fire captain has been removed from his position and could lose his job after he was caught broadcasting himself on a pornographic webcam site while on duty.
Someone who was communicating with Capt. Jeff Piercy through the webcam alerted the Channel 4 I-Team and told fire officials about the incident.
The adult website is place for people to share explicit pictures of each other and talk via webcam. The person who was talking with Piercy on the site e-mailed the I-Team a webcam photo of the fire captain that was being broadcast on the site.
The tipster wrote the I-Team and said, "recently saw a Metro fire captain in the fire hall on an adult website in a Nashville Fire Department uniform shirt with his name on it, broadcasting webcam during his shift. I think this is bad for the Nashville Fire Department’s image to have a captain on camera in an adult website in Nashville gear."
The same tipster also alerted the fire department, which investigated and confirmed it was Piercy using his personal laptop to visit the website while on duty.
"To make a poor decision like that is really sad because it could really damage a career," said Nashville Deputy Fire Chief Kim Lawson.
The I-Team obtained departmental records that show Piercy admitting to being on the website while at work at his office in west Nashville.
The deputy chief asked Piercy how the person on the other end of the webcam knew he was on-duty firefighter.
"I was talking to him on the website (with the webcam). He could see my blue T-shirt and asked me where I worked. I shouldn't have, but I told him that I was a fire captain," Piercy said.
Authorities are investigating how often incidents like this happened. Piercy has apologized to Nashville's fire chief for his actions.
"He's really a great employee, but he's also an officer of this department and his behavior was inappropriate," said Lawson.
Piercy has been reassigned and is now working at the training academy while the situation is being investigated.
If he is found guilty of violating the department's code of conduct, Piercy could be fired. He will have the option whether or not to have a hearing on this matter.
As of Wednesday evening, Piercy had not returned the I-Team’s call or released a statement.
Copyright 2010 by WSMV.com. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Got a story idea? E-mail newstips to [email protected] or call the newsroom 24/7
