{"id":321125,"date":"2026-06-26T21:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321125\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:15:10","slug":"florida-police-chief-fired-after-crash-vodka-found-in-titusville-city-issued-suv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321125\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida police chief fired after crash, vodka found in Titusville city-issued SUV"},"content":{"rendered":"

TITUSVILLE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The City of Titusville <\/a>has fired Police Chief John Lau after officers found a partially consumed bottle of vodka in his city-issued SUV following a crash Tuesday night, according to police and city officials.<\/p>\n

Body camera footage<\/a> released from the scene shows officers examining the bottle, asking each other about its contents. <\/p>\n

“Can you just point to the liquid level because it’s hard to tell on the camera,\u201d one officer says. Another asks, \u201cIs that open or closed?\u201d to which a colleague replies:<\/p>\n

Well, it’s been drank out of.<\/p>\n

The crash happened around 11:15 p.m. on June 23, near River Oaks Drive and Barna Avenue, just outside Titusville city limits, according to officials. Lau was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. Video shows officers securing his personal belongings at the scene, including two phones from the vehicle identified as his assigned city SUV.<\/p>\n

According to the Titusville Police Department, a commander later requested that Lau submit to alcohol testing while he was at the hospital, either through a blood draw or a breath test, to determine whether alcohol played a role in the crash. Police say Lau refused, which they say is a violation of the city\u2019s personnel policy.<\/p>\n

An officer at the scene reported smelling alcohol inside the vehicle, writing that he \u201ccould immediately smell the odor of alcoholic beverage throughout the passenger side.\u201d The same officer noted that Lau appeared to have bloodshot eyes. Another officer stated he \u201cslightly smelled the odor of what resembled that of an alcoholic beverage coming from (Lau\u2019s) person and\/or breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

See also: Martin County woman gets nearly 30 years after DUI hit-and-run killed cyclist<\/a><\/p>\n

Lau was released from the hospital the following day. Shortly afterward, City Manager officials met with him and terminated his employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is his car. That\u2019s his assigned vehicle,\u201d an officer can be heard saying on body camera footage as they inspected the SUV at the crash site.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Interim Police Chief Tyler Wright called the incident \u201cextremely unfortunate and avoidable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"According<\/p>\n

According to the Titusville Police Department, a commander later requested that Lau submit to alcohol testing while he was at the hospital, either through a blood draw or a breath test, to determine whether alcohol played a role in the crash. Police say Lau refused, which they say is a violation of the city\u2019s personnel policy. (CNN Newsource)<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, no other innocent parties were involved, and no serious injuries were sustained,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThis incident does not reflect the values of this Department or the dedicated men and women who serve our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

No additional details about the crash or potential charges have been released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TITUSVILLE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The City of Titusville has fired Police Chief John Lau after officers found a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-321125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}