Police officer drove drunk to pick daughter up at elementary school, Florida cops say
.jpg "An Orlando police officer was accused of driving drunk to pick his daughter up from elementary school, according to a Florida sheriff’s office.")
An Orlando police officer was arrested after he was accused of driving drunk to pick his daughter up from elementary school, according to a Florida sheriff’s office.
A school employee told a sheriff’s deputy just after 4:30 p.m. Feb. 28 that they were concerned about the condition of a parent who had come to pick up his child, according to an arrest report from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
The parent, later identified as an Orlando police officer, had parked in a through lane and was blocking other vehicles, the report says. He was also “unsteady on his feet,” had bloodshot eyes and had to lean on a pole to steady himself, the report says.
“He didn’t seem to fully comprehend what the employee stated to him,” the report says.
A spokesperson for the Orlando Police Department said in a statement that the officer was arrested while off duty. He has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending an internal investigation, the statement says.
The officer, who was a sergeant with the department, had been employed since March 2007, the statement says.
At one point, he went to move his vehicle, pulled into a parking space and struck a concrete parking stop block so hard that the vehicle “shook several times,” the report says.
When a deputy spoke with the officer, he smelled alcohol on him and noticed his speech was slurred, according to the report.
The deputy arrested the officer and later administered a breath test to measure the officer’s blood alcohol content. His measurements were 0.158 and 0.165, according to the report. The legal driving limit is 0.08 blood alcohol content.
The officer was charged with driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or higher with a person under 18 in the vehicle, according to Seminole County Jail records. He was released on a $500 bond, according to a spokesperson.
This story was originally published March 2, 2023 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Police officer drove drunk to pick daughter up at elementary school, Florida cops say."