Image Credit: Herald-Tribune
A Sarasota Police Officer might be in hot water after a video surfaced Monday showing the officer treating a homeless inmate like a dog.
On Monday a video, which was obtained by the Herald-Tribune via a public records request, surfaced that shows Sarasota Police Officer Andrew Halpin throwing what is believed to be peanuts at inmate Randy Miller’s mouth, as someone would do with a dog.
Miller, who is intoxicated and handcuffed, cannot catch all of the peanuts with his mouth and eventually crawls to the floor to pick up the tossed snacks. Officer Halpin then comes over again and kicks some of the peanuts closer to Miller, again, as one would do to a dog.
What makes this humiliating ordeal even worse is, according to the report by the Herald-Tribune, a source familiar with the arrest said that Halpin was giving the inmate “dog commands” during the ordeal.
Following watching the video for herself, Police Chief Bernadette DiPino suspended the officer and opened an internal investigation.
“Based on the actions in the video, I immediately initiated an internal investigation on Officer Halpin,” DiPino told the Herald-Tribune. “I’m disappointed in what I observed in the video, and placed the officer on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation.”