In the towing industry, they call it “cop connects”: a scam where drivers can make up to $1,000 per “hook” and kick back as much as $500 to the friendly officer that refers his favoured driver to a collision scene.
An Ottawa whistleblower says he knows exactly how this corruption is occurring because he also has paid off his “cop connects.”
“Absolutely,” he said in an interview with Global News.
“Multiple times. Money, motorcycles, cars — multiple times. And not just for accidents. Just for information.”
He confronted and covertly recorded an Ottawa police officer at a collision scene in 2018, two years before the RCMP announced anti-corruption probe charges against the 32-year-old officer and several others allegedly involved in a kickback scheme.
Again, in 2019, the tow truck driver warned a city councillor that Ottawa’s tow industry is rigged against consumers, and “hundreds of people are getting scammed every week and the amount of corruption within the Ottawa police is at an all-time high.”