WATCH ABOVE: Surveillance footage shows Halpin throw bits of food.
TORONTO – A police officer in Florida is on paid administrative leave after getting caught on video throwing peanuts at a homeless man and watching him eat them off the floor.
Randy Miller, 44, is a regular at the Sarasota County Jail. He’s been arrested in Sarasota five times for trespassing in the past two months, according to police records. In 2015 alone, he has racked up a total of 18 visits — 12 for trespassing and six others linked to public drinking.
But it’s his July 18 arrest that is the source of controversy. While an intoxicated Miller was waiting to be booked, a surveillance camera recorded Officer Andrew Halpin spend over three minutes throwing peanuts at the homeless man.
At one point, Halpin can be seen kicking peanuts in Miller’s direction and watching him eat them off the floor with his hands still cuffed behind his back.
A source told the Herald-Tribune, the publication that made the initial request for the video to be released, that Halpin even gave Miller ‘dog commands’.
“Based on the actions in the video, I immediately initiated an internal investigation on Officer Halpin,” Police Chief Bernadette 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.”
At least three other officers stood nearby and did not intervene.
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