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.Dropping traffic ticketsThe 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.This happened several times in 2017 alone.In one case that year, he got someone out of a ticket in exchange for three $25 liquor mart gift cards, the statement of facts says.In another, Bostock got a Winnipeg police colleague to drop a ticket against an acquaintance’s brother in exchange for a 40-ounce bottle of whisky and two cigars.In 2017, he got a woman out of a ticket in exchange for a bottle of vodka for the issuing officer, and got a man out of a $600 fine and a tow in exchange for a $50 Starbucks gift card.In 2019, he got someone out of a distracted driving ticket in exchange for a $20 gift card to Tim Hortons. Stolen cannabisIn fall 2022, he and another constable were partnered with a more junior constable briefly on an investigation.Bostock and the other senior constable admitted to the junior constable they had stolen cannabis from a crime scene on Stradbrook Avenue in Osborne Village. Cash was also recovered at the scene.The junior constable recounted a conversation with Bostock that day, during which Bostock asked the constable, “If it was you and I working that day … do you think we would’ve had an arrest that day?”When the junior officer replied yes, Bostock responded, “No, we wouldn’t have arrested anybody,” according to the officer’s account in the agreed statement of facts.”I would’ve told that guy that we were gonna take his money and his drugs and he was gonna get on a flight back to Vancouver and he was gonna get away with it,” Bostock said, according to the court document.According to the younger officer, Bostock “was just kind of like saying … ‘Imagine what you could do with that money.… That could pay for a wedding, it could be a trip.'”Police data leakedThe professional standards unit investigation revealed several photos of Bostock with criminal associates and text messages with them asking him to run licence plate numbers, the court document states.There were two separate occasions in 2022 where family members involved in a Winnipeg grocery chain contacted Bostock, and he then provided them information from internal Winnipeg police databases, according to the agreed statement of facts.In one case that year, one of the family members sent Bostock a photo of a licence plate, saying it was associated with someone who had robbed another family member while she was trying to sell a cellphone.Bostock provided his associate with the name and home address of the vehicle owner. It becomes harder and harder for the police to convince the public that they are capable of making sure these things don’t happen again in the future.- Frank Cormier, criminologistIn another case, another of the family members sent Bostock a photo of a licence plate and told him it belonged to a suspected heroin dealer who had been supplying drugs to someone he knew. Bostock figured out it was registered to a rental company, and later discovered the person believed to have rented it and their criminal record status.Bostock shared that information and asked his associate “not to kill the party in question,” the statement of facts says.Investigators say that family member was also part of a group chat with Bostock and others. In March 2022, that person posted a video to the chat of an assault by grocery store employees on someone suspected of breaking into residential units above one of the stores, according to the court document.Staged theft ensnares BostockIt wasn’t until fall 2024 that the professional standards unit managed to ensnare Bostock through two set-ups.As part of an investigation into that alleged assault by grocery store staff, the unit “planted a narrative” about how a member of the family who owns the grocery store chain was going to be arrested.Bostock then relayed to associates that police were monitoring that group chat, were aware of the video of the apparent assault and were watching.Then, on Oct. 17 last year, the standards unit, with the help of an undercover RCMP officer, staged a vehicle break-in at a motel in Winnipeg.The Mountie claimed to have confronted a thief in the act, ripping a backpack off of him while the thief took off. That bag had a large black knife inside, along with bear spray, a sealed package of cannabis, “inert” drugs made to look like Xanax and meth, black market cigarettes and $75 in cash, among other miscellaneous items.Incidents like those Bostock pleaded guilty to damage the public’s perception of police, according to a University of Manitoba criminologist. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)Bostock was called to respond to the incident. The undercover RCMP officer said he foiled an attempted vehicle break-in but snatched the bag off the perpetrator before he ran away.He turned over the closed backpack to Bostock and his partner, who put the bag in the trunk of their cruiser — a vehicle outfitted with numerous secret audio-video recording devices, the court document says.Video from the trunk shows Bostock and his partner open the bag up and remove the items. Bostock took the cash, while his partner took the cigarettes, according to the document.The recordings revealed the pair decided to spend the $75 on breakfast together.”[Bostock] thanked ‘Bear Spray Guy’ for ‘a delicious breakfast and bear spray,'” the court document states.The officers were then recorded becoming more paranoid through the rest of the day, worried the call could’ve been an “integrity test” by the police service.’Bad apples’After that, the professional standards unit searched Bostock’s home and found four pairs of brass knuckles and nunchakus, both prohibited weapons.Also recovered was Ozempic weight-loss medication prescribed to someone who had died and was the subject of a police call Bostock did not attend personally, along with psilocybin, cocaine and a suspected cutting agent, according to the court document.U of M criminologist Cormier said when incidents like this occur, it damages the public’s perception of police.”Every time they do happen, police say, you know, ‘This is an exception, it’s just a few bad apples…. We take this very seriously and we’re going to earn the trust of the public,'” Cormier said.”But then over time, we keep hearing that these things keep happening, so it becomes harder and harder for the police to convince the public that they are capable of making sure these things don’t happen again in the future.”
Leaked police data and whisky for voided tickets: What we learned from Winnipeg officer’s guilty plea
