(NewsNation) — Newly released body camera footage shows a San Diego police officer locked in the backseat of a squad car with an arrestee who propositioned him for sex minutes before.
Investigators with the San Diego Police Internal Affairs Department launched a probe into former officer Anthony Hair last year after he was found in the backseat with a female detainee he arrested and was supposed to transport to a detention center in August 2023.
Hair resigned amid the investigation, just one day before his second scheduled interview with investigators, reported KNSD.
The investigation wrapped up earlier this month. The San Diego police department did not immediately return a request for comment by NewsNation.
The department released numerous videos and audio files from August 14, 2023, under a law that requires law enforcement agencies to publicly share records that find peace officer misconduct through an internal investigation.
The incident unfolded after Hair, a two-year police veteran, helped arrest an unidentified female suspect who was involved in an alleged car theft and had a bench warrant. The officer was tasked with taking the woman to police headquarters and then to the Las Colinas Detention Center in Santee, according to KFMB.
During the interaction, which was caught on Hair’s bodycam video, the female suspect is heard propositioning him for sex as he drove the car in an effort to “work the system.”
“Are you single?” the suspect asks the officer. He replies, “Yes, but you’re not,” referring to her having a boyfriend.
“You’re not too bad,” she then says. “What’s it gonna hurt me if I work the system, you know what I mean?”
She then explicitly mentioned sex.
Hair replied, “Don’t say that right now. … Don’t say that right now because everything is being recorded right now.”
He is then heard asking her what she’s doing in the backseat, and his body camera turns off.
According to police GPS tracking data released with the video files, Hair then pulled onto a residential street blocks away from the detention center.
Twenty minutes later, Hair called a fellow officer, asking him for a master key and asking him to meet him immediately.
“I heard and noticed Officer Hair had a panicky voice,” the unidentified officer who responded said in a police interview released by the SDPD. “I asked him why he needed me, and he said he would tell me when I got there. He said he was really embarrassed.”
About 30 minutes later, a supervisor arrived and unlocked Hair from the backseat of the car, video showed.
He told the responding officers that he went to the backseat because he thought the woman needed help and that the door accidentally shut on him, according to police interviews.
“When I was waking her up, that’s when I noticed that this door closed on me. That’s when I was trying to kind of open the door,” Hair said in the video.
He also claimed his body camera was accidentally shut off when he stepped out of the car.
Both Hair and the woman said they did not have any sexual contact while in the backseat, but the woman told investigators in a later police interview that the officer “wanted to get with me when I was done with the warrant or whatever I got arrested for.”
She also said Hair asked her to meet him after she was out of jail but that she never did.
Police testing found traces of Hair’s semen on his belt, reported KFMB.
One month after the incident, Hair resigned from the force.
It is unclear if the officer faces any criminal charges stemming from the incident, but the incident has sparked calls for more accountability for San Diego police officers.
Tasha Williamson, a local community advocate, told KFMB that she submitted a complaint to the police department when she heard about the incident through community members.
“So why is it that this officer is just simply able to resign amid being fired, possibly, but not have any criminal charges?” she said.
