Tucson police sergeant arrested on extreme DUI charges

Sgt. Robert Lund, a 21-year-department veteran, was arrested after a citizen called 911 to report that a motorist had struck a curb near South Harrison Road and East 22nd Street and was possibly impaired, said police Chief of Staff Capt. Clayton Kidd.

When Tucson police officers arrived around 11:30 p.m., they found a 1999 Ford Taurus that is owned by the city of Tucson in a parking lot at the southwest corner of the intersection.

It is not clear if Lund, 44, was driving in the parking lot or if he was parked, but he was in control of the vehicle, meaning he was in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition, Kidd said.

Officers noted signs and symptoms of intoxication and began a DUI investigation, which resulted in Lund’s arrest.

He was cited and released, which is common practice on a misdemeanor charge, Kidd said.

Lund’s blood alcohol level was not released, but it was above 0.15 — the legal limit is 0.08.

Kidd would not say if Lund was on duty at the time, saying the internal investigation would determine that.

He has been placed on paid leave while both the criminal and internal investigations are being conducted.

He is a supervisor of the Community Response Team in Operations Division East.

“We have 1,525 full time employees and the actions of one person should not reflect negatively on everyone else,” Kidd said. “He was treated like any other citizen would be.”

Lund’s attorney, Mike Storie, said that his client “deserves all of the presumptions any ordinary citizen enjoys.”

“I think that it’s a shame that any time a police officer is arrested, it’s front page news for making perhaps the same mistakes that any ordinary citizen would make that would go unnoticed,” he said. “Too often people forget that police officers are humans too and suffer through the same human weaknesses we all do.”