A San Diego police officer has been appointed to the Police Officer Standards Committee, years after he hung embroidered images of three naked women in his cubicle accompanied by the phrase “tap, rack and bang.”
Nicholas Nguyen was appointed to the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training, responsible for training law enforcement officers across the state.
The 18-year veteran of the San Diego Police Department committed sexual harassment in 2019 by displaying a four-inch patch showing naked women in his frequently visited cubicle.
Police leaders believe he learned his lesson from the incident and “grew from it,” as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
If selected, he will play a role in leading the selection and training of California law enforcement agencies for at least three years.
A San Diego police officer has been appointed to the Police Officer Standards Committee, years after he hung embroidered images of three naked women in his cubicle accompanied by the phrase “tap, rack and bang.”
The 18-year San Diego Police Department veteran committed sexual harassment in 2019 by displaying a four-inch patch showing naked women in his frequently visited cubicle
Sergeant Nguyen was appointed to serve on the board alongside Lt. Charles Lara, who “has had a distinguished career since 1999 and has served as a lieutenant since 2011,” according to the San Diego Police Department.
The appointment was highly praised last month by Chief David Nisleit and Mayor Todd Gloria.
“It is always a point of pride for me to see city employees selected to lead at the state level,” Gloria wrote in a statement.
“I want to thank Governor Newsom for recognizing the caliber of officers we have in the San Diego Police Department to serve on these boards.”
Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and has been with the force since 2005.
Police leaders said they are “confident in his abilities to represent the SDPD and make a positive contribution to statewide law enforcement standards.”
The appointment came despite records of his history of sexual harassment in 2019, when he posted three images of naked women on the wall of his cubicle.
A colleague reported the incident in which Nguyen hung a patch described as four inches wide with “sexually suggestive images of naked women embroidered on it.”
The images show naked women, one next to the other, with the accompanying phrase “tap, rack, and bang.”
The patch was found in his cubicle, which was said to be a “high traffic area” often frequented by the officers' subordinates.
By the time he was examined, he had displayed those images as part of his room decoration for four years.
Sergeant Nguyen was appointed to serve on the board alongside Lt. Charles Lara, who “has had a distinguished career since 1999 and has served as a lieutenant since 2011,” according to the San Diego Police Department.
“I could not believe that a San Diego Police Department sergeant would display negative images of a woman alongside other law enforcement patches in a San Diego police station,” the colleague who filed the report said in a document.
Nguyen was disciplined and removed from his position on the SWAT team after investigators determined the images constituted sexual harassment.
His supervisor, Capt. Jeff Jordon, stated that the incident four years ago should not prevent Nguyen from receiving the appointment.
“I look at him as someone who has taken his discipline, learned from his discipline, made no excuses for it and doubled down on his work ethic and his desire to make a difference,” he said.
Jordon added, “I can't say enough about his qualifications, his abilities and what he brings to the table every day.”
The appointment continued to be questioned by some people, including Julia Yoo, a civil rights attorney based in San Diego.
She said: “As the name suggests, (the POST committee) is a body that advises on the standards of conduct of peace officers, so for a candidate their character and conduct must be above reproach.”
Nguyen did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.