Toronto police investigating after video appears to show officer giving citizen the middle finger

Toronto police have launched an internal investigation after a video appeared on social media showing a police officer giving a citizen the middle finger during an argument over illegal parking.

In this video, which has been viewed more than 425,000 times on Tik Tok, two Toronto police officers are seen ordering from Starbucks in the area of ​​Front and Berkeley streets (near the city's distillery district) on Friday afternoon.

When ordering, their car appears to be parked in a no-parking zone on Berkeley Street.

Meanwhile, the citizen who filmed the encounter asks the officers if they are allowed to legally park in the area.

While one officer says he "doesn't know," the other appears to admit they parked in a no-parking zone.

"I understand where you're coming from, but at the end of the day, like everyone else, we need 11 hours of work and caffeine," says the female officer.

Click the player above to watch the video.

This conversation continues for several minutes and finally the officers get into their patrol car. The video then shows one of them giving the citizen the middle finger from the driver's seat in the patrol car.

The person who recorded the video later told CP24 that he didn't think the officer noticed the footage because he had put away the body camera he was already using at the time. He said the video was recorded through glasses with a built-in camera.

Toronto police confirmed in an email to CP24 that their Professional Standards Unit is investigating the incident.

"While we cannot discuss the specifics of the incident captured on video, we acknowledge that the officer's response was not appropriate," they said.

So far, none of the officers have been identified.

In an interview with CP24 on Tuesday afternoon, Toronto Police Association President John Reid accused the person who filmed the encounter of "inciting" the officers into the viral interaction.

"We've had countless examples recently of officers being filmed and treated very, very badly," Reed said, noting that he hasn't seen the full footage. And frankly, it's frustrating. And I can only assume that maybe that was a completely human reaction on the part of this officer."

"I think people should have more respect for police officers in terms of day-to-day interactions," he added.

The user account that posted this video had previously posted about a dozen videos of alleged examples of police misconduct.

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