A Seattle police officer’s creepy cat impersonation has landed him in the doghouse. Officer Vincent Fason got a 30-day suspension for weirding out an entire veterinary clinic with surprise visits, uncomfortable hugs, and a bizarre, overly familiar cat impression that involved meowing and rubbing his head on a staffer’s arm.
Fason first visited the clinic on a call about some shell casings in the parking lot last summer. Afterward, he told the staff that he would return to check in on the business. They didn’t know what that would mean.
The clinic initially welcomed Fason’s visits. At first, they were brief and sporadic, but Fason began showing up more often and sticking around longer. He stopped by several times a week and stayed for 45 minutes to an hour.
Once, in September 2025, Fason entered through the clinic’s cat door, mimicking a cat by purring and meowing. A staff member joked that they didn’t have any appointments for him, and he hissed at her. Later, he made purring sounds and rubbed his head on another staff member’s arm. According to the Office of Police Accountability report, “she froze in discomfort and found [Fason]’s act triggering due to a prior traumatic experience.”
In particular, he seemed to fixate on one clinic staff member. She said that he frequently hugged her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. On October 15, he grabbed her and pressed her bust into his chest, then told her, “You know I love you.” She told the clinic manager not to allow Fason into her office, but in a later incident, he went in anyway and poked her on the shoulder, saying, “Poke, poke, poke.”
By October, Fason was showing up frequently, the staffer said. She recalls that he came to the clinic three times in one day to lurk in the lobby. That day, she discreetly took a photo of him sitting in the lobby, looking at his phone. Later, she told a community service officer about Fason. The CSO said that he was a little “huggy” and suggested she contact the CSO’s supervisor.
Fason claimed that he did not recall doing anything the clinic staff alleged. However, in a second interview, he admitted that he hugged the staffer three times but insisted that she initiated it each time. He denied all of the allegations. At the same time, he could not come up with a plausible motive for why four clinic staff members and the clinic’s manager would lie.
He explained his frequent visits as “business checks.” Fason said that prostitution and shootings were common in the area and that it was part of his job to check in on businesses. Fason claimed that none of the staff made an issue about his visits. The staff said that they found it difficult to confront him about the discomfort he caused because he was a police officer.
After the hugging incident on Oct. 15, Fason was reassigned to another sector. GPS records show that he visited the next two days. On Oct. 16, he stayed for about 30 minutes, and the next day, he was there for 10 minutes, responded to a call, and returned for about 45 minutes.
The OPA sustained all allegations, noting that each incident was corroborated by multiple people and documented in text messages. Fason’s unwanted touching was unprofessional, the OPA argued, and he shirked his obligation to patrol his sector by spending an unnecessary amount of time “loafing” at one business.
Since Fason denied all of the allegations, the OPA opened a second dishonesty investigation. While the OPA has already sustained dishonesty findings in that case, the chief has not issued final discipline. The presumed penalty for dishonesty is termination under the SPOG contract. However, cops who lie are not always fired. Fason still appears on the roster, but he is on leave.
Hired in 2016, Fason makes $159,036 in base pay, and he made $56,123 in overtime in 2024, the last year for which we have overtime data.
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