The LaSalle Police Service has closed its investigation into a possible police impersonator, saying they do not believe it happened.
Police began their investigation last Friday after a young girl said a man wearing a police ballistic vest that had the words "LaSalle Police" on the front approached her.
She said the man spoke with her in the parking lot of Malden Square Plaza on Malden Road, but when investigators looked into it, they confirmed none of their officers were in the area at the time.
The man did not identify himself as a police officer, and the two spoke just briefly.
Now, police say, "after an exhaustive and thorough investigation, the LaSalle Police Service has reason to believe that the incident did not occur as reported, and there is no evidence to support a public safety risk."
There have been incidents across Southwestern Ontario where someone did impersonate an officer.
A woman in Oxford County reported she had been stopped in May near Tavistock by a vehicle that appeared to be an unmarked police SUV. A man wearing what looked like a police uniform asked for her essential worker status, something the Ontario Provincial Police said it would not do.
The OPP also investigated two other incidents of suspected police impersonators in Oxford County and in Elgin County last December.
A year ago in Windsor, police investigated a robbery where the suspect with a weapon and wearing a Windsor Police Service shirt. In that case, the police concluded the robbery report was legitimate. However, the man was not wearing a police uniform or any clothing that may have indicated he was an employee of the service.
The OPP advise anyone they suspect of trying to impersonate an officer to call 911 and write down a description of the individual and their vehicle.
