London police officer charged with impaired driving | CBC News

· Posted: Apr 18, 2024 7:39 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 18

A London police officer has been charged with impaired driving after a car was stopped on Hwy. 401 by Ontario Provincial Police. 

The stop happened at around 1:30 p.m. in the westbound lanes of the highway near Wonderland Road. 

The officer has been with London police for 12 years and was off-duty when the charges were laid, officials said in a statement. 

Const. Darryl Horan, 35, of Woodstock, was arrested and charged with impaired driving with a blood alcohol concentration exceeding 80 mg. 

Horan was released from custody with certain conditions and is expected to appear in court on June 4. He has been put on administrative duties. 

Last week, CBC News reported that Ontario taxpayers paid $143 million for the salaries of officers suspended with pay in the last decade, $5.2 million of that for London officers.  

Until recently, police chiefs were not allowed to suspend officers without pay unless they were convicted of a crime and sentenced to imprisonment, so some sat for months or even years at home, getting paid, while their cases wound their way through the justice system. 

As of April, a police chief can suspend without pay if an officer is in custody or on bail conditions that would interfere with their ability to do their job, or if the officer is charged with a serious off-duty offence that could also lead to their firing. 

London's police chief told CBC News in the aftermath of the investigation that he's like to suspend an officer without pay under certain conditions.