MIAMI — A veteran Miami Police Department lieutenant was found unconscious behind the wheel of a pickup truck after crashing into a median along U.S. 1 in the city’s Coconut Grove neighborhood on Saturday evening, leading to drunken driving charges, according to an arrest report released on Monday.
According to the MPD report, Lt. Thomas Carroll had rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz on U.S. 1 a few blocks south of the Dadeland Mall; a witness followed him nearly six miles before the longtime lawman crashed the Ford F-150.
Authorities said Carroll, 49, nearly sideswiped a Tesla Cybertruck during the intervening drive between Pinecrest and Coconut Grove.
Police said after crashing at the Bird Road intersection at around 6 p.m., Miami Fire Rescue crews “were forced to break the rear window to gain access” to Carroll.
Carroll came to and “was groggy and uneasy on his feet,” according to the arrest report.
Police said medics took him to HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, where he refused treatment “and waited outside with police.”
According to the report, while waiting outside, officers smelled alcohol on Carroll’s breath and he had slurred speech with “very poor balance.”
Authorities said Carroll refused to perform a field sobriety test and officers took him into custody. They said he later refused a breath test and officers took him to jail, where he quickly bonded out.
Carroll, who has been with MPD since 1999, is facing charges of DUI and refusal to submit to DUI testing.
It’s not his first time in trouble as Carroll, once an assistant chief with the department, has had a highly-publicized run-in with the law.
He was previously arrested in 2024 after allegations of domestic violence. That case no longer appears in Miami-Dade court records.
After his latest arrest, an MPD spokesperson said Sunday evening that Carroll “has been relieved of duty” pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
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