Kingston police say cruiser seen parked in accessible parking space part of investigation

Kingston, Ont., police say an online photo showing a police cruiser parked in an accessible parking space doesn’t tell the whole story.

The image, taken outside of a McDonald’s restaurant, has been making the rounds on social media for the last few days.

On Tuesday police acknowledged officers had been parked in the accessible parking space, but said the officers parked in the spot while they looked for a suspect, who they thought may have gone into the restaurant.

Police said the officers were responding to an undisclosed emergency call for service at the Kingslake Plaza at 1201 Division St. on Dec. 27 when the photo was taken.

“In an effort to locate the individual, the responding officer quickly parked their cruiser in an accessible parking space,” police said in a statement.

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“Although this was an unfortunate use of an accessible parking space there was no intention to deny any members of the public use of this space.”

Police say the suspect was found inside a nearby business, not the restaurant.

A 28-year-old individual from Kingston has been charged with two counts of theft under $5,000, two counts of breach of probation and one count of mischief under $5,000.

It’s not the first time Kingston police have come under fire for their parking.

In March 2018 police apologized after a photo of a cruiser parked in an accessible spot outside of a Tim Hortons was shared online.

In that case police said the officer involved had just come off a lengthy collision investigation and did not notice where he had parked.

— with files from Mark Ladan