A POLICE chief has criticised the “unacceptable” behaviour of officers for parking on double yellow lines to buy ice creams.

A female officer was spotted by an Oxford Mail photographer carrying two ice creams back to a police van parked in Oxford’s Parks Road on Saturday and opening the passenger side door.

The road is marked with double yellow lines, which prohibit police as well as ordinary drivers from parking there outside of official operations.

The officers were parked opposite Oxford University’s Department of Computer Science, next to Oxford University Parks.

Thames Valley Police’s Oxford local policing area commander Supt Christian Bunt yesterday said: “This is not the conduct that we expect from our officers.

“Parking on double yellow lines for anything other than operational purposes is unacceptable.

“The matter has been addressed internally by myself as the local policing area commander and will be dealt with via our internal disciplinary process.”

Our top stories: