Police have released video showing an emotional father, who was attempting to pick up his children from school, in the back seat of a cruiser saying “please just take care of my family” after being arrested on suspicion of impaired driving.
Officers from York Regional Police were dispatched to a school in Vaughan, Ont. on Wednesday afternoon after a 911 call was made from a concerned citizen.
Officers said the caller reported that a 38-year-old father was trying to pick up his young children at the school but staff would not allow him to do so as “he appeared to be drunk.”
The man then drove away from the school, police said, and was located a short time later by officers at his home.
In the video, the dispatcher can be heard saying “it appears the male in the truck came to pick up his kids from school, got in a verbal altercation with another teacher at the school. The kids were removed from the vehicle and they are currently in their room at the school right now, so he should be solo.”
The man is then seen being taken into police custody under suspicion of impaired driving.
The video then shows a brief interaction between the man, who appears to be emotional, and a police officer inside the cruiser.
Man: “My just two-year-old just saw me going away with a cruiser.”
Officer: “I know.”
Man: “Un-f***ing believable. And I got three kids.”
Officer: “Yeah, I know. And they’re little.”
Man: “So can you please just…”
Officer: “Well we can’t change…”
Man: “I don’t care if I gotta stay in there for three days just can you please just take care of my family.”
Officer: “Absolutely. That’s what matters to us, right?”
Police said the man was then driven to a police station for a breath test, where he blew more than twice the legal limit for alcohol.
“I am truly at a loss to understand how drivers continue to make the stupid and dangerous decision to drive while impaired, either by alcohol or drugs,” York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe said in a news release issued on Friday regarding the matter.
“Our officers see this every single day.”
Jolliffe went on to say that these “selfish choices put our entire community as risk, including young children, as we have seen in this case.”
The news release stated that more than 5,000 people call 911 to report impaired driving cases each year.
“So far in 2019, more than 4,200 calls to 911 have helped to safely remove impaired drivers from our roads, which has led to more than 1,290 impaired-related criminal charges being laid.”
The identity of the accused in this case will not be released, police said.
