SAN DIEGO – An officer with the San Diego Police Department has resigned after he found himself locked in the backseat of his patrol unit with a female arrestee who propositioned him for sex last year, according to authorities.
Officer Anthony Hair resigned from the department about a month after an investigation was launched into the August 2023 incident and one day before he was scheduled for a follow-up interview.
Hair had been with SDPD for two years prior to finding himself in the compromising position, locked in the back of a police car with the female suspect after she had been taken into custody on suspicion of stealing a car outside a convenience store as well as an unspecified bench warrant, according to CBS 8.
The unnamed female suspect was reportedly one of two people wanted for auto theft. Hair made the arrest and was supposed to bring her to police headquarters and later to the Las Colinas Detention Center.
However, he apparently took a compromising deter that required another officer to respond and come to his aid.
SDPD released bodycam footage where the female arrestee was heard asking the officer if he was married and propositioning him for sex, the New York Post reported.
“You’re not too bad. What’s it gonna hurt me if I work the system, you know what I mean? That’s the way I see s–t,” she told Hair.
“Are you single?” she added, to which he responded, “Yeah, but you’re not.”
“I’m down to f–k right now,” she told him, before he interrupts, “Don’t say that right now … Don’t say that right now because everything is being recorded right now.”
While driving to the detention center, Hair can be heard asking the woman what she is doing in the backseat.
Hair slowed his vehicle as he drove onto a residential street. He claimed his bodycam inadvertently deactivated when he exited the car. Approximately 20 minutes later, Hair called for a fellow officer to assist him as he found himself locked inside the caged area of the patrol unit with the female, reported CBS 8.
“I asked him if he was okay. He said yes, and then asked if I had my patrol car key with me … I asked why he was asking and what did he need,” the unidentified officer said of Hair, describing him as panicked. “Officer Hair then asked me if I could go meet him.”
The officer turned his bodycam off after pulling into a residential street with the female detainee. (SDPD)
“I asked him his location and he said, near Cottonwood … I asked him why he needed me, and he said he would tell me when I got there. He said he was really embarrassed.”
After more than an hour in the backseat with the woman, a supervisor arrived and opened the door.
Hair reportedly told investigators that he believed the woman was suffering from a medical emergency, and he was just “checking” on her, NBC San Diego reported.
However, his actions were grossly inconsistent with that account of the situation.
Both Hair and the female suspect denied anything inappropriate took place while they were “locked up” in the back of the patrol car.
“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 clip.
Officer Anthony Hair resigned about a month after an investigation was launched into the incident. (SDPD)
Regardless of denials that anything untoward happened in the back seat, SDPD found traces of semen on Hair’s belt, CBS reported.
“He wanted to get with me when I was done with the warrant or whatever I got arrested for,” she said.
Under California law, it is unlawful for any authority figure to engage in sexual activity with a person in custody, even if the sex is consensual.
It’s unclear if SDPD will seek criminal charges against its former officer.
