A photo of an Indiana police car parked in a handicapped parking spot in front of an IHOP has garnered millions of view online since it was posted Monday.
The photo was originally submitted to Reddit by user TheToolMan with the caption, “My local police must be responding to a pancake emergency.”
TheToolMan indicated that the officer was simply inside the IHOP eating breakfast.
“It was incredibly disappointing to see the image and embarrassing for our agency,” said Lafayette Police Department Chief Partick J. Flannelly to local station WTTV. “Outside of an officer responding to the business for life saving action, there is no reason for a police car to be parked in that spot, period.”
An investigation into the issue revealed that the officer was not parked in the spot for official business. The officer claimed that he did not see the marking on the ground and expressed to his commander that he was embarrassed.
The local police department also determined that since the space was not properly marked as a handicap space, the officer would not be reprimanded. In fact, no vehicle, regardless of the operator, would be ticketed for using that space, according to the department chief.
