Drunk Spanish police officer steals patrol car with four children, only pays a fine

The officer who took the patrol car while drunk with four children aboard during San Fermín

On the afternoon of 6 July, with Pamplona in the full euphoria of the Chupinazo (the opening rocket of the San Fermín festival), an off-duty Municipal Police officer decided the patrol car was an extension of his day off. With 0.79 mg/l of alcohol — triple the legal limit for any driver — he drove around the city with four children on board, none of them in a mandatory child restraint system. One of them, according to reports, was sitting on the driver's lap.

The outcome is anything but festive. The officer has been convicted of a road safety offence and theft of use of a police vehicle. His guilty plea spared him a full trial and left him with two fines of 1,440 euros and a one-year driving ban. Not a single day in jail.

Justice with a badge: same offence, different outcome

The comparison writes itself. If a Glovo delivery rider or any ordinary driver did this, prosecutors would seek prison time and the court would grant it. Here, the uniform worked like a get-out-of-jail card. The officer, presumably, will keep drawing his salary from the city council and will be able to patrol on foot — as some commentators have quipped — while he waits for the storm to pass.

The sum is simple: 2,880 euros in fines and one year without a licence for putting the lives of four children and half the city at risk. The ratio between the actual danger and the penalty doesn't add up even to the most optimistic actuary.

The detail that doesn't add up

The most surprising figure is not the blood alcohol level, a record for an active-duty officer, but that the case never went beyond an administrative outcome. The uncomfortable question is: what would have peine if the protagonist hadn't worn a badge? With the answer, readers will know what to expect the next time an officer breaks the law with an official vehicle. Because next time, it's sure to come.