Halle Berry and model Gabriel Aubry were seen cutting a line at Montreal's Trudeau airport. (Dan Steinberg/Associated Press)

A Montreal police officer "took the personal initiative" to move American actor Halle Berry, her Canadian partner and their daughter to the front of a lengthy U.S. customs queue at Trudeau airport earlier this week, a police spokesman said Friday.

Oscar winner Berry, Quebec model Gabriel Aubry and their daughter were spotted bypassing a long lineup Monday before they boarded a Montreal airport flight to Los Angeles — an incident reported by Quebec media outlets and slammed by at least one blogger.

Insp. Jimmy Cacchione, who heads the Montreal police force’s 36-member airport unit, acknowledged the officer's move had nothing to do with keeping the celebrity family safe.

Cacchione said the officer made the decision to let the couple through after a spur-of-the-moment request by Aubry.

"The husband of Ms. Berry asked if they could go faster through the line because they were late and they had the baby," Cacchione said. "The officer took the personal initiative to allow them to go through the line faster, but that's not something the Montreal police supports."

Cacchione added that the officer will not be reprimanded and the police airport unit will institute stricter rules for the future.

Escort by police 'a bit exaggerated': blogger

Before police reacted to Quebec media reports, freelance journalist Mariève Paradis said in her French-language blog that other passengers in the same line as Berry and her family had to wait as long as an hour.

"I need to make one thing clear … I have absolutely nothing against Halle Berry, or movie stars," Paradis wrote.

"They are probably nice people living in a world that's different from mine! I just find that an escort by the Montreal police strikes me as a bit exaggerated. Couldn't she have been escorted by an agent from Air Canada or the airport?"

"It was a very hard morning that day because there were so many people," Paradis told CBC News from Los Angeles on Friday.

When she and her husband arrived at the gate only minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off, Paradis said she was scolded by Air Canada staff.

"We would not have been late if we were Halle Berry," Paradis said.

Heightened airport security measures brought in after an alleged bomb plot was foiled following a transatlantic flight to Detroit on Christmas Day resulted in long lineups for passengers travelling to the United States over the holidays.

With files from The Canadian Press