A former Boston police chief, Cox has won a long list of honors in his career, but is perhaps best known in his hometown for the successful lawsuit he brought against the department after an incident in 1995 when his colleagues mistook him for suspected of murder. , beat him unconscious and tried to cover it up for years. Cox’s decision to go public with his experience drew attention to the dangers faced by the department’s few black officers, particularly when working undercover. “This is a comeback for me… [and] quite an emotional moment,” Cox said Wednesday, her voice shaking. “Since that moment in 1995, I have dedicated my life to making sure that both the Boston Police Department and policing in general have grown and learned from the experiences I lived long ago.” Cox’s appointment closely follows Wu’s selection as a new fire commissioner and new school superintendent, solidifies her position in city leadership, and comes as the city has gone well over a year without a permanent commissioner. Wu said she was excited to appoint a leader who “brings decades of experience working at every level to our police department.” “Chief Cox leads with that sense of possibility, a deep belief in what we can achieve together and a deep love for the city he grew up in,” he said. In February 2020, while serving as chief of the Ann Arbor Police Department, Cox was placed on short administrative leave with pay due to allegations that he had created a hostile work environment and exerted undue influence in an internal investigation into parking enforcement. Michael Cox spoke to community members in the lobby of the Justice Center in Ann Arbor as he ran for police chief in 2019. Ben Allan Smith/Associated Press A city-commissioned investigation by a law firm found “no evidence” that Cox’s conduct created a hostile work environment, and Cox was reinstated after less than a month. However, investigators concluded in a report there was “no question” that many police department employees “were very uncomfortable with the actions of the Chief and that they fear retaliation.” The investigation came after a lieutenant testified that she felt pressured by Cox not to recommend firing a parking supervisor who he concluded had lied about canceling tickets. After interviews with police officials, including the lieutenant and Cox himself, investigators concluded that Cox dismissed the ticket as trivial and made jokes that some in the department “interpreted as derogatory.” Asked about the incident on Wednesday, Cox said he’s “learned enough from it and I just hope it doesn’t happen.” “I’ve always tried to guide all officers in good practices to make good decisions and sometimes I might intimidate some people, but I apologize for how I was perceived,” he said. “It was not my intention at all.” Wu said she had spoken personally with Ann Arbor’s mayor and city manager about the incident and was confident that Cox “is a leader with great integrity, that he takes every leadership step very seriously and that he has taken full ownership of any bad communication and I used it as a learning opportunity.” He takes over a department without a full-time leader for more than a year. Previous commissioner Dennis White was placed on leave two days after he was appointed by former Mayor Martin Walsh following a Globe investigation into allegations that White threatened to shoot his ex-wife. White was later fired, and General Manager Gregory Long served as acting commissioner from February 2021. In January, Wu appointed a five-member committee to search for a new police commissioner with the hope of naming someone by spring. The research conducted worked with a search firm to solicit more than 40 applications and conduct two rounds of interviews to narrow the list of candidates down to four finalists. The city posted a job application in April seeking a “proven transformational leader” for the position, and Wu has repeatedly expressed a desire to hire someone committed to reforming a department that has repeatedly been mired in controversy. Multiple Boston police officers pleaded guilty to overtime fraud last fall after a federal investigation revealed that more than a dozen officers, including former union president Thomas Nye, falsified time sheets to collect more than $300,000 in overtime. Another union leader, Patrick Rose, was sentenced in April to 13 years in prison for sexually abusing six children over several decades. A year earlier, the Globe reported that Rose was allowed to stay on the force for 20 years after officers found he likely sexually abused a child in 1995, exposing an institutional failure by the department to discipline officers accused of misconduct. Ivy Scott can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @itsivyscott. Emma Platoff can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @emmaplatoff. Danny McDonald can be reached at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonald.
