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Florida 'hot cop' resigns amid probe into anti-Semitic Facebook posts

A Gainesville, Florida, police officer who gained unexpected fame as one of the "hot cops" responding to Hurricane Irma has resigned from the department amid allegations he made anti-Semitic Facebook posts and had sex with a woman while on duty.

Gainesville Police Department Officer Michael Hamill had been suspended in September following the Facebook allegations. He resigned Dec. 6, the day he was to be interviewed in an Internal Affairs investigation.

Department spokesman Ben Tobias said both allegations would have been sustained based on evidence. It is possible Hamill, who was hired in 2016, would have been terminated as a result.

In early September, the department posted a selfie of Hamill and two other GPD officers "getting ready to do some work" as Hurricane Irma swept through Florida. The post of the "hot cops" drew thousands of admirers and many departments across the country followed suit by posting their own photos of studly officers.

But just weeks after the Sept. 10 post, the department received complaints about the Facebook posts and a sexual relationship he had with a woman.

Investigators uncovered two posts Hamill had made to his personal Facebook account before he was on the Gainesville police force. In one from 2011, he says, "Stupid people annoy me," then added, "put them in an oven and deal with them the hitler way. Haha."

He posted that "reading Jewish jokes" helped him feel better about himself in a 2014 post. He then offered the following: "What's the difference between boy scouts and Jews?... Boy scouts come back from their camps."

The department said the "offensive nature" of the posts affected Hamill's ability to interact with the community.

Department investigators also found Hamill had sex with a woman while he was on duty, using interviews, GPS readings and text messages. The woman told investigators the on-duty visits stopped after she found out Hamill was married, which occurred after the "hot cops" post went viral.

Tobias, in an email, said the department takes officer misconduct "extremely seriously."

The department will begin requiring all of its recruits to visit the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, before being sworn. He said the incident involving Hamill was "not solely" the reason for the tours, adding the department had been in contact with the museum before the incident.

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