ESSEX’S top police officer came under fire from fellow cops after taking to social media when he spotted what he believed was a badly parked police van.

Chief constable of Essex Police Stephen Kavanagh used Twitter to post a photo of a force vehicle blatantly straddling two parking spaces outside a shop.

Writing on the site, Mr Kavanagh said: “I hold our force to a higher standard & parking like this falls below it!

“Apologies to anyone inconvenienced in #Boreham yesterday.”

But the post quickly attracted the ire of fellow officers and members of the public, who argued that the van had actually been parked with consideration for other drivers.

One poster, under the name of Makeshift Cop, said: “If this is what fills your day Boss I'm really worried about your priorities.”

Mr Kavanagh replied: “It doesn't fill my day. Apologising to the public when we get it wrong is part of policing.”

But Fiona Unwin pointed out that if the van had parked within the space then the car driver would have struggled to open the door.

She said: “Think you are mistaken, Sir. If the van had parked 'correctly', the driver of the car would not have been able to get back in!”

She added: “If anything, it's excellent thoughtful parking!”


Other posters suggested the van might have been responding to a call and that the car driver was at fault for parking on the line.

The account One Police UK said: “Strange how I can always seem to get through the day without being ‘inconvenienced’ by non issues like this.”

And Ian Bishop wrote: “Perhaps you should get all the facts first before castigating your own officers on a public forum . Shameful.”

A few Twitter users backed Mr Kavanagh, with Adrian Wannell writing: “If officers don't care about small matters that concern the public they won't believe they care about the big things.”

The photo also caught the attention of parody account Bullshire Police, which uses humour to highlight what it believes are problems within modern policing.

It posted a doctored version of the photo with a wide parking bay labelled “police van”.

It said: “All fixed. You can return to worrying about your Police Officers not wearing their hats now.”