The future of the Lake Hamilton Police Department is in doubt after a scathing report from the state attorney's office. The 89-page report paints the small town agency as underfunded, unprofessional and under motivated.

The state attorney's office said it began investigating LHPD after it received the results of an LHPD investigation into an alleged case of child abuse. State attorney investigators concluded the officer assigned to the case put little work into his investigation and made serious mistakes.

The state attorney's investigation also claims to have found major problems with officer training and evidence storage among other things.

State Attorney Jerry Hill told Bay News 9 that the LHPD wasn't qualified to investigate anything more serious than traffic citations and worthless checks. Hill didn't feel LHPD had the proper funding to meet modern policing standards. He suggested a merger with the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

"According to that report from the state attorney's office they certainly need help," said sheriff Grady Judd.

Judd said some Lake Hamilton leaders had contacted him with their concerns about the police department. He said the city would have to formally ask the sheriff's office to provide law enforcement services.

"I'm not there to take over anything," said Judd.

The sheriff's office currently contracts to provide law enforcement for six other Polk cities.

"It seems like the police department is incapable of doing the job," said town council member Cora Robertson.

Robertson was open to the idea of bringing in the sheriff's office and said the town council needed to have an emergency meeting to revisit the police issue.

Police chief Lyle Jagniszak drove away in his police vehicle when Bay News 9 and other reporters tried to ask him about the state attorney's report.