Officer resigns after locking himself in backseat of squad car with female detainee

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (WKRC) — An officer resigned after locking himself in the backseat with a female detainee.

According to The New York Post, San Diego Officer Anthony Hair resigned around a month after a probe was launched into an incident in August 2023. Per the publication, it was just one day before he was scheduled with meet with investigators for a second interview regarding the matter.

CBS 8 reported that in adherence to California Law, the San Diego Police Department recently released information on its internal investigation into Hair and the events on August 15, 2023.

Per the station, Hair, who had been a two-year veteran of the department, accidentally locked himself in the backseat of his squad car with a female detainee while transporting her to Las Colinas Women's Detention Center. He was inside the vehicle with the woman for over an hour, per CBS 8.

Per CBS 8, Hair had been one of several officers that assisted with the arrest of two individuals suspected of car theft. One of the individuals taken into custody was a woman who had a bench warrant out for her arrest. The woman involved in the incident has not been unidentified.

Hair was asked to take the woman to police headquarters, then to Las Colinas Detention Center in Santee, California. As he was transporting the woman, the two began to have a conversation, which was picked up by Hair's body camera, per CBS 8.

According to the station, the following exchange can be heard:

Woman: "Are you married?"

Officer Hair: "Why are you asking that?"

Woman: "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."

The microphone of Hair's body camera picks up moans from the backseat, per CBS 8.

Woman: "Are you single?"

Officer Hair: "Yeah. But you're not."

Woman: "I'm down to f--- right now."

Officer Hair: "Don't say that right now. Don't say that right now because everything is being recorded right now."

According to the station, as they approached Las Colinas Detention Center, Hair asked the woman what she was doing in the backseat. That's when the police cruiser slowed down and Hair switched off his body camera, per the outlet.

A GPS tracking system inside the cruiser found that Hair's vehicle turned down a dark residential street only blocks away from Las Colinas Detention Center and at around 1:34 a.m., the vehicle stopped. Around twenty minutes after the cruiser stopped, Hair made a call to a fellow officer asking if he had a master key to the patrol cars.

"I heard and noticed Officer Hair had a panicky voice," the officer said during an interview, per 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. Officer Hair then asked me If I could go meet him. 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 a short exchange, Hair finally told the officer that he was locked in the backseat with the woman. At about 2:40 a.m., a supervisor arrived on the scene and opened the door, per CBS 8.

During an investigation, Hair maintained that he was only checking on the woman and said the door accidentally shut on him, per CBS 8, which reported that Hair claimed he knocked his body-cam off its clip while getting out of the vehicle.

The woman was interviewed by authorities and insisted nothing inappropriate had occurred inside the cruiser, per CBS 8. The station reported that a test on Hair's clothes for semen found trace amounts on his belt.

It remains unclear if Hair faced any charges related to the incident.

ncG1vNJzZmivmpawtcKNnKamZ56axLR7zZqroqeeYsSwvsudZqyZnmKxqrHGqGSonpaesKa%2BjJqlraCfo8ZutMCiqWaqlai2qLrSZpifrJWneq27wqSgp59dnbauv8SlnWahnmKvoq%2FKrJyarF2bsq6ty55knZ2klravscRmq6uto6l6ra3WZpynnp%2BnsKa5xKerZp2cnrCqwIycpqeulafAosDIqKVmqpWYvLOwyKeeZqSRqHqku8uipZqrXZmytbHNraCopl2Xsq%2Bvx2aumqqilru1ecKipZyhnqOutbWMnKysrJ%2BZxm6%2F06ijnqZdmK6zecinrZ6rpJ60osDIqKVmnZGnubp5zKipp6GenHqqusKim56mpKh6tbHSraCfsQ%3D%3D