(HorizonPost.com) – A San Diego police officer who was investigated for an August 2023 incident in which he locked himself in the backseat of a patrol car with a female suspect resigned shortly after the incident took place.
Officer Anthony Hair left the San Diego Police Department about a month after the department launched an internal investigation into his behavior on August 15, 2023.
The San Diego Police recently released the details of the investigation as required under California law.
According to the investigation, Hair along with several other officers had arrested a man and a woman suspected of car theft. The woman, who was not identified, was wanted by police on an outstanding warrant.
Hair was instructed to transport the woman to police headquarters before taking her to Las Colinas Women’s Detention Center in Santee. While taking her to the detention center, Hair and the suspect’s conversation was picked up on his body-worn camera.
When they were nearing the detention center, Hair asked her what she was doing in the backseat. At that point, Hair slowed down and switched off his body camera.
Based on the patrol car’s GPS tracking, Hair turned down a residential street not far from the detention center and stopped the vehicle at about 1:34 a.m.
Roughly twenty minutes later, Hair radioed a fellow officer requesting a master key to the department’s patrol cars.
The officer later told investigators that Hair’s voice sounded panicked and he asked him if he was okay. Hair said he was all right but asked the officer if he had a key to his patrol car. When asked why he needed the key, Hair told the officer to meet him at his location but would not tell him why, telling the other officer that he would explain when he arrived.
Finally, Hair explained that he had accidentally locked himself in the back of his squad car with the woman. A supervisor arrived a little over an hour later and unlocked the vehicle.
During the internal investigation, Hair insisted that he only went to check on the woman when the door accidentally closed behind him. He also claimed that his body cam got knocked off when he got out of the driver’s seat.
However, tests conducted on Hair’s uniform found traces of semen on his belt.
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