Parents angry after teen says she was aggressively interrogated by off-duty Winnipeg police officer

The Winnipeg Police Service's professional standards unit is investigating a complaint by a father who says an off-duty officer aggressively interrogated his 14-year-old daughter at her high school until she was in tears, with the officer saying she hit his car with her hand while crossing the street.

The girl and her parents say it was a simple misunderstanding that could have been easily resolved, but they allege the man used his authority as a police officer to try to force her to confess to something she insists she didn't do. 

"It was almost like he kept mentioning [he was a police officer] because he felt he was on a higher standard than us," the 14-year-old girl said.

"I couldn't really speak up as I was crying, but he just …wouldn't let it go." 

CBC has agreed to withhold the names of the teen and her parents, as they fear repercussions for sharing their story. 

Const. Dani McKinnon, a public information officer for the Winnipeg Police Service, said in an email that "the professional standards unit was made aware immediately after this incident, and continues to investigate."

The girl, who attends Shaftesbury High School in southwest Winnipeg, said that around 3:45 p.m. last Monday, she missed the bus home and decided to go back into her school to wait for the next one.

As she crossed the street toward the school, she passed a car that was parked in the middle of the crosswalk, which forced her and another girl to have to pass behind it, she said.

Shortly after, a man came running toward her, she said, saying she hit his car and that he was an off-duty police officer. 

"Come with me. I need to talk to your principal with you," she recalls him saying.

The girl said she followed him into the school, where she and the man told the principal and vice-principal their sides of story.

The man, who was the passenger in a car driven by his wife, maintained that the girl hit the car when she passed it. She said he was angry that she wouldn't admit to that.

"I felt angry and frustrated," the teen said. "I even pointed out when we were going up the crosswalk there was another person, and it wasn't just me, and he wouldn't take my no for an answer."

The girl called her father to the school. He said when he got there, he was shocked at how aggressively the man was talking to his daughter, conducting what he described as "a full-on interrogation."