Photo: Twitter

An Edmonton police officer has been ticketed for improperly parking his marked police vehicle across several parking stalls, one of them a space reserved for handicapped drivers.

Insp. Gary Godziuk said the 10-year veteran of the force and a colleague were in the middle of transporting equipment on a long trailer to a fundraising event and "stopped for a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons."

A photo of the infraction appeared on Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday morning, accompanied by a storm of criticism, including one man's sarcastic suggestion: "Must have been a real donut emergency."

Godziuk described the incident as “embarrassing” and the police department released a video on YouTube to apologize.

He said it is "not conduct that we expect from our officers" and said the officer involved has been talked to in addition to the ticket.

Godziuk declined to release the officer's name.

"The point is we acted swiftly to make sure that these members are held accountable," he said. "This won't happen again."