These cops must have needed pancakes really bad

This photo is going viral in Lafayette, Indiana, apparently showing a police patrol car needlessly taking up a disabled parking space at an IHOP (International House of Pancakes).

"I believe this is called abusing your power," Ryan Schmitt, who took the photo, wrote on Facebook.

"Parking in a handicap spot when you're not handicapped and now my father had to park further from the door than he already had to."

The image received thousands of shares, as people began tweeting Lafayette Police Department about the incident.

"If the cops were on duty, they may have parked closer just in case they do need to leave really fast," one Facebook user commented. "But at the same time they should've used a normal parking space. A handicap wasn't necessary. That's horrible."

The picture got posted on Reddit where a debate broke out about whether the police's choice of parking spot was technically legal given that there was no corresponding handicap sign next to the space.

It was also suggested that they might have been responding to an emergency inside the restaurant, with the photo appearing to show another patrol car to the right of the central one.

We've reached out to Lafayette PD for some clarification.