Manitoba

Winnipeg police officer charged with impaired control of vehicle after November arrest

A Winnipeg police officer has been formally charged with impaired care and control of a vehicle after police said he had been arrested in November.

Leslie McRae, 41, is 1 of 5 Winnipeg officers arrested on impaired driving charges in 2017

A police patch on the arm of a member of the Winnipeg Police Service.
Five Winnipeg police officers were arrested in 2017 for drinking and driving-related charges, including 10-year member of the force Leslie McRae. (CBC)

A Winnipeg police officer has been formally charged with impaired care and control of a vehicle, after police said in November he had been arrested.

Const. Leslie McRae, 41, was charged Wednesday with refusing to provide a breath sample and care and control of a motor vehicle in November 2017. McRae, a 10-year veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service, was off-duty at the time, RCMP said.

​RCMP say they found a man in the driver's seat of a vehicle parked on the shoulder of the Trans-Canada Highway, just west of Headingley, around 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2017.

When the RCMP officer spoke to him, the man in the vehicle displayed signs of intoxication, the RCMP said in a Wednesday news release.

The man was arrested for impaired care and control of a vehicle and taken back to the Headingley RCMP detachment. He refused to provide a breath sample, the release states.

The Winnipeg Police Service told CBC News in December the man was one of five Winnipeg police officers arrested on drinking and driving charges in 2017.

Police announced the list of five at the time in December, but didn't release McRae's name then because he hadn't been formally charged.