St. Joseph County officer arrested for driving police cruiser while allegedly drunk

SOUTH BEND — A St. Joseph County patrol officer was arrested Sunday morning for allegedly driving a marked police cruiser while intoxicated.

Officer Coty Hoffman's vehicle struck a mailbox near the intersection of Hickory Road and Ethel Avenue. His "speech was slowed" at the time of the accident, officials said. Indiana State Police officers were called in to process the scene and arrest Hoffman, 30. He was booked into the St. Joseph County Jail.

Hoffman has not been formally charged, although Sheriff Bill Redman placed him on paid administrative suspension.

Hoffman was off-duty at the time of the accident. He was driving his county police vehicle near the 53000 block of Hickory Road — which is just south of Cleveland Road on the northeast side of South Bend — around midnight on Sunday morning, according to a St. Joseph County Police Department press release. It's not clear at this time why Hoffman was driving his cruiser while off duty or where he was coming from.

After the cruiser struck the mailbox, the release said, per the department's protocol for collisions involving police vehicles, Hoffman notified his supervisor about the crash. When county police responded to the scene, the on-duty supervisor noticed Hoffman's slurred speech and called for state police to handle the crash investigation.

ISP arrested Hoffman for operating while intoxicated and booked him into the county jail. He was released a few hours later. Hoffman has not yet been charged with a crime, though he has been ordered to appear for a hearing in late January.

In addition to possible criminal charges, Hoffman will face an internal department investigation that could result in further disciplinary action by the county police department's merit board. He will remain suspended until the internal investigation is complete, the release said.

Department policy allows officers to use their department-issued vehicles for transportation while off-duty, though only in St. Joseph County or counties directly neighboring it. The policy goes on to state officers may not use department vehicles to patronize bars or liquor stores, operate department vehicles without wearing a shirt and shoes, or have more than one passenger in the car.

"Officers using assigned department vehicles both for on-duty and off-duty … must act in a professional manner as to the use and operation of such vehicles," the policy says.

Troy Warner, an attorney for the St. Joseph County Police Department, said the vehicle take-home policy allows for off-duty officers to respond to emergency calls more quickly if they are closer than on-duty personnel.

Public records show Hoffman was hired as a correctional officer at the St. Joseph County Jail in 2015 and has been a county patrolman since 2019.

Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek