No evidence to prove Mountie used police, MPI database to find ex-girlfriend: Manitoba police watchdog

There is no evidence to suggest a Manitoba RCMP officer used police or insurance databases to find his ex-girlfriend, and not enough evidence to prove an allegation that heassaulted her while they were together, the province's police watchdog says.

RCMPreceived an allegation on July 21that an officer assaulted his longtime girlfriend inAugust 2019 and later used private records, or asked a fellow officer to access them, to find where she lived, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said in a report.

The woman told RCMPthat in 2019, herrelationship with the officer began to deteriorate and they got into a heated argument in August of that year.

She threw a pillow at him, and he allegedly grabbed her and pinned her to the dresser. At that point, the woman kicked him in the groin and he let her go.

She sustained some minor scrapes and was sore the next day, according to the IIU report, which was released Wednesday. She didn'treportthe incident to the police, said the report from the unit, which is mandated to investigate serious incidents involving police in Manitoba.

The officer, who was interviewed by IIU investigators,said he didn't recall the fight.

The woman told police while the fightwas mutually violent, she was primarily concerned about what took place after they broke up.

The woman, who was also interviewed by the IIU, said she moved out of their shared home and into a newlocation on July 15, 2021.

She said just before moving, she changed her vehicle registration to the new address and obtained a new licence plate. She didn't share the new address or plate number with anyone, since she didn't want the officer to know where shewas living.

On July 19, she received an email from officer, in whichhe made reference to her new licence plate and said he would"drop off" some of her things at her new home.

The woman told RCMP that she wasconcerned her ex hadused his position as a police officer to find her licence plate through Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) or Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) records.

The police officer said he had seen her car parked and noticed it had a different licence plate, and guessed that his ex had moved to the area.

In addition to the interviews with theMountie and the ex-girlfriend, the investigative unit reviewedtext messages and emails, and conducted an audit of the CPIC and MPI systemsto determinewhether the woman's licence plate information had beenaccessed by anyone.

There were no searches for the woman's information on either of the data systems, except for the insurance agency that issued the woman's new licence plates.

Based on the lack of evidence, the watchdog's civilian director concluded there were no grounds to file charges against the Mountie and closed the investigation.