A Toronto police officer has been charged with impaired driving while off duty after reportedly being found asleep behind the wheel in a stopped vehicle.
Insp. Michael Hayles was arrested on Sunday shortly after 6 a.m. after police responded to a call for a person asleep behind the wheel of a stopped vehicle in the area of Laird Drive and Eglinton Avenue East.
Hayles has been charged with impaired operation/conveyance and impaired operation/conveyance/exceed blood alcohol concentration.
Police confirmed in a statement to Global News that Hayles was off duty at the time of his arrest.
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The 51-year-old inspector has been with the police for 30 years and was assigned to 55 Division. He has been suspended with pay in accordance with the Community Safety and Policing Act.
The Senior Officers Organization, which represents senior officers and civilian members of the Toronto Police Service, said they would not comment on Hayles’s circumstances. But President Clayton Campbell did say the officer who arrested Hayles “took the appropriate steps.”
“We would like to mention that no police officer wants to arrest a fellow member, let alone someone who is several ranks above him,” Clayton said. “In this case, with the information available, our member took the appropriate steps in a very difficult situation.”
Police officers charged with impaired driving while off duty is not unprecedented in Ontario.
Last month, Const. Peter Guy Forbes with Kingston Police was charged after an investigation into impaired driving while off duty. He has since been released with a future court date.
In January 2022, Supt. Riyaz Hussein was charged by the Ontario Provincial Police with impaired driving after a collision in Pickering, Ont. He was also not on duty at the time. Hussein was later demoted to inspector for one year after pleading guilty to impaired driving before a police tribunal.
—with files from Global News’ Catherine McDonald
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