Lexington officer with history of driving problems gets 2-week unpaid suspension
A Lexington police officer with a history of questionable driving behavior has been suspended for two weeks without pay and cannot take his police vehicle home for six months.
Jonathan Coyle, who has been an officer since 2015, was driving on Interstate 75 when he used the car’s lights to get drivers to pull to the side despite no apparent emergency, according to police discipline records.
A citizen called Lexington Police Department on March 20 to report they saw a Lexington police truck on I-75 near the Clays Ferry Road exit. The citizen told police the officer used his lights to come up behind him. The citizen said he thought he was being pulled over, but the truck continued on.
The citizen told police the vehicle did the same action to multiple cars until the truck exited in Madison County. The citizen said Coyle was traveling more than 90 miles per hour.
“During the internal investigation Officer Coyle gave contradicting statements and memos,” to officers about the incident, according to disciplinary records.
The Lexington Herald-Leader obtained Coyle’s disciplinary records through an Open Records Act request.
At first, Coyle told his supervisors he had only used his lights on a vehicle that was traveling too slow. Later, Coyle said he may have used his lights on other vehicles that were traveling too fast.
Coyle did not activate his body-worn camera while he had his lights and sirens activated, which is required by police policy, the records show. Police looked at his body-worn camera footage for all of March and discovered Coyle had not had his camera on buffering, a type of stand-by mode, while driving to and from work. Police are required to have cameras buffering while driving.
Coyle’s two week suspension was approved by the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council at a July 13 meeting.
This is the second time in 12 months Coyle has run afoul of department policies about use of police vehicles.
In August 2022, Coyle’s home fleet privileges were suspended for two weeks, according to police disciplinary records.
On March 6, 2022, Lexington police received a complaint Coyle had cut off a driver in Richmond at a time when Coyle should have been at work. On March 27, 2022, Coyle was again spotted in Richmond at 4:57 p.m. when he was scheduled to work until 5 p.m.
Department policy states officers must remain in the sector of town they are assigned to patrol until their shift is over.
Coyle told public integrity unit officers he left early on March 6 because he needed to pick up a child. Coyle told officers he left early on March 27 because he had been feeling ill all day and told supervisors his illness was getting worse as the day progressed. When second shift officers began taking calls, he left a few minutes early, he told public integrity investigators.
Coyle denied cutting off drivers or driving recklessly, according to disciplinary records.
Officers are allowed to take home police cruisers and SUVs and can drive them for personal use.
Coyle’s two week suspension will start in early August, disciplinary records show.
