Leaked police data and whisky for voided tickets: What we learned from Winnipeg officer's guilty plea

WARNING: This story contains graphic comments made about the body of a dead woman.

A court document reveals what a criminologist calls a "striking list" of offences by a Winnipeg police officer who used his position to engage in a range of illegal activity for which he's now expected to serve prison time.

Const. Elston Bostock leaked police information to associates involved in illicit activity, shared a photo of a dead topless woman with other officers, used his connections to get contacts out of tickets, and took goods — including whisky and cigars — in exchange for favours and more, a court heard Friday.

"It really was quite a striking list of charges against this officer," said Frank Cormier, a criminologist and instructor in the sociology department at the University of Manitoba.

"The best way to describe it is that it's certainly not common, but it's not nearly as uncommon as it should be."

Bostock, a 22-year member of the Winnipeg Police Service, still faces federal drug charges, but he pleaded guilty Friday in Manitoba Court of King's Bench to theft under $5,000, trying to obstruct justice, breach of trust and offering an indignity to human remains. 

In the latter case, Bostock took a photo of a topless dead woman laying on a floor surrounded by medical supplies used in a failed attempt to save her life, according to a court document detailing criminal behaviour over a roughly eight-year period.

He sent that May 2021 photo to a fellow officer, along with information about how the woman died of a fentanyl overdose, saying she had the “best body on a dead body I ever saw."

He sent the photo to another colleague, a constable, and said it was the "first time I was horny over a dead body."

The court document details years of unethical or illegal behaviour revealed through Project Fibre, an investigation launched in 2024 that caught Bostock stealing from evidence obtained during a staged vehicle break in that year.

The Winnipeg Police Service's professional standards number also found a number of times between early 2016 and fall 2024 where Bostock "repeatedly used his position as a police officer to prevent traffic tickets from being issued to or prosecuted against his associates and their acquaintance," according to an agreed statement of facts presented in court Friday.

That court document says Bostock made 22 attempts to obstruct the prosecution of traffic tickets on behalf of associates and acquaintances, a dozen of which were successful.

Some of the failed attempts included two efforts to persuade a fellow officer to drop a speeding ticket given to an acquaintance for doing 137 kilometres per hour in an 80 zone.

But he often arranged an exchange of nominal gifts for the ticket-issuing officers as a condition of them dropping the tickets, according to the document.