Ottawa cop demoted after using database to search for women, partner

OTTAWA – An Ottawa police constable has been demoted for 18 months after he admitted to using police and Ministry of Transport databases dozens of times to search for people he personally knew and other members of the public.

Const. Jerome Rabiha-Stevens, who joined the force in 2022, pleaded guilty this month to four counts of misconduct as part of a disciplinary process.

A copy of the settlement says the front-line patrol officer searched the databases 17 times for people he knew, including his ex-partner’s parents, a woman he was having an affair with and that woman’s partner. 

It says he also searched for women he met or saw at the gym in a bid to identify them or their social media, or to connect.

The practice extended to other members of the public too, with Rabiha-Stevens carrying out 49 searches from December 2024 to May 2025 — for personal reasons, both on and off duty, including to search for a woman on the street he found attractive.

An investigation began when the officer, while on duty and in a police cruiser, confronted his partner and the partner of the woman he was having an affair with at a Tim Hortons parking lot and damaged the man’s vehicle. No criminal charges were laid.

The allegations are laid out in an agreed statement of facts in the settlement document. Ottawa police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

During the investigation into the collision, a woman referred to as G.L.  disclosed that she’d had an affair with Rabiha-Stevens. 

She said they had first met at the gym and, despite not giving her name and having no mutual friends, he found her on Instagram and sent her a followup request. “A sexual relationship between them ensued,” the document says. 

The woman told investigators that during the affair, Rabiha-Stevens said he had driven by her house, even though she had never told him where she lived. She told them she was uncomfortable, and she believed he had looked up her licence plate and learned about her address that way.

Rabiha-Stevens had searched her licence plate in March 2024, around the time they first met at the gym, the document indicates. 

He told investigators he knew where she lived because he recognized her car in the driveway. But when asked about the search, he said he “wanted to know she was, but ultimately could not recall the exact reasons,” the agreed statement of facts says. 

“Const. Rabiha-Stevens acknowledged that the queries of G.L. were not in the lawful execution of his duties, but that he ‘got into a loop’ of being focused on his personal relationships and was consumed by the situation.” 

The agreed statement of facts says he suspected his partner was involved with G.L.’s partner, and he used the police database to search for vehicles related to him and his partner’s parents. 

He was also asked to explain a number of searches between December 2024 and May 2025 linked to people living in and around the area where he lived, and even outside Ottawa police jurisdiction. 

In one case, he recalled searching for a woman he found attractive who said hello to him while he was walking with his child in the neighbourhood. The woman was interviewed by investigators and said she didn’t know him. 

Investigators also interviewed another woman whose licence plate Rabiha-Stevens repeatedly searched for starting in December 2024. 

She said they had first met at the gym in late 2024 and he followed her on Instagram shortly afterwards. They would occasionally see each other at the gym, but they never formed a personal relationship and she didn’t believe he knew where she lived or worked, she told investigators. 

He told investigators he’d done the searches “out of curiosity,” the document says. 

During interviews with investigators about other licence plate searches, he recalled two women from the gym “he normally said hi to and suggested that the registered owner may have been someone from the gym,” the document says.

“He was unable to provide a reason for the query beyond that he was a curious person and that he wanted to find out who they were.” 

Rabiha-Stevens was demoted from first class to second class constable for 18 months.

He will be returned to that rank after 18 months “on the basis of satisfactory work performance to be determined by the service,” the settlement agreement says. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026.