Following food-tossing incident, Sarasota officer resigns

One day before the completion of the Sarasota Police Department’s investigation into an officer’s alleged misconduct — and 15 minutes before his scheduled interview with internal affairs — Officer Andrew Halpin resigned from his position.

Halpin was the officer captured on video throwing food at a handcuffed individual at the Sarasota County jail. The police department placed him on administrative leave when video footage of the incident became public on July 27, and SPD staff planned to interview Halpin regarding his role in the incident at 1 p.m. today.

At 12:45 p.m., however, Halpin submitted a letter of resignation to the patrol shift commander. The letter read, “I hereby resign for personal reasons effective immediately,” according to a SPD release.

The investigation was expected to be completed Wednesday. According to SPD spokeswoman Genevieve Judge, a report on the incident will still be written without Halpin’s input.

SPD Chief Bernadette DiPino had stated before that she was disappointed in the footage from the incident, but she believes the event was an isolated one.

“The behavior I saw on that video was unacceptable; however, Mr. Halpin chose to resign before providing us with his side of the story and before our investigation was completed,” DiPino said in a release. “I expect our officers to uphold the highest levels of ethical behavior and treat all citizens with dignity and respect while serving our community.”