A security guard at Ontario’s police training center near Aylmer is accused of trying to extort alcohol from two people, court documents show.
Ontario Police College staff contacted provincial police Nov. 10 after two students complained about an employee of a private security firm at the college, Elgin OPP said.
Peter Neufeld, 53, of St. Thomas, is charged with two counts of extortion and two counts of criminal harassment involving a man and a woman, who can’t be identified under a court-imposed publication ban.
The extortion charges allege Neufeld “without reasonable justification or excuse and with intent to obtain a bottle of alcohol” threatened to report the complainants to their employer between Sept. 15 and Nov. 9, court documents say.
“I will not confirm or deny,” Neufeld said Wednesday when reached for comment.
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Police college security guard charged with extortion after student complaints
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Neufeld, who was arrested Nov. 11, is set to make his first court appearance in St. Thomas Dec. 13.
An OPP spokesperson declined to say whether Neufeld was terminated from his job.
The Solicitor General’s Ministry, which oversees the college, declined comment, citing the ongoing police probe.
The Ontario Police College was set up on the sprawling grounds of the former RCAF Station Aylmer in Malahide Township, east of Aylmer, in 1962. The station was built for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan during the Second World War.
The college offers basic constable training three times a year and professional development courses for police officers.
London police currently have 12 cadets enrolled for the fall semester, a police spokesperson said.