A Tampa police officer was arrested Monday on charges that he engaged in sexual activity with a minor, the police department announced.
Jonathan Darling, 32, was “immediately relieved of all duty upon his arrest,” the Tampa Police Department said in a news release. According to the department, evidence revealed that Darling discussed sex and exchanged explicit pictures with a 16-year-old boy. Darling also gave money and marijuana to the boy, whom he met through a location-based dating app.
Their digital correspondence spanned from December 2025 to March 2026. During that time, Darling also made travel arrangements for the victim and set up marijuana deliveries on his behalf, the news release states.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children first notified the Tampa Police Department of “suspicious online financial transactions” between Darling and a possible minor on May 15. He was placed on leave May 26, after police confirmed the victim’s age and “received allegations of criminal acts,” according to the news release.
“When you wear our badge, you are held to the highest standard of public trust,” police Chief Lee Bercaw said in the news release. “This individual shattered that standard and dishonored the dedicated officers who serve our community with integrity every day.”
Tampa police arrested Darling at his home around 2 p.m. Monday. In addition to a charge of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, he faces charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and unlawful use of a two-way communications device. Records show he was being held at the Orient Road Jail without bond.
It was not clear Monday whether Darling had retaineda lawyer. A phone number listed for him in public records was disconnected.
Darling, who joined the Tampa Police Department in 2019, is the second officer from the agency to be arrested this month. On June 1, Hillsborough deputies arrested Jason Brown after he was clocked driving 134 mph on Interstate 75 in his personal vehicle, according to court records.