Is the Culture That Failed Sandra Birchmore Still Running These Departments?

Sean Goode resigned from the Canton Police Department amid an internal affairs investigation. Michael Proctor was fired from the Massachusetts State Police. Four officers connected to the Sandra Birchmore case have been decertified or permanently barred from law enforcement. And a lawsuit alleges that the documented record of misconduct between Proctor and Goode stretches back more than ten years — a decade of messages that, according to the complaint, include racial slurs, antisemitic statements, discussions of planting evidence, and a derogatory slur directed at Sandra Birchmore herself.

Officers are being removed. But is the culture that produced them being addressed?

That’s the question at the center of this piece. According to federal prosecutors, three Stoughton police officers allegedly became involved with the same young woman they met through a police youth program — and none of it was caught internally until long after her death. According to Read’s lawsuit, Proctor and Goode allegedly exchanged hateful messages for a decade without a single person in either agency flagging it. Both cases ran through the same Norfolk County DA’s office. Both required federal intervention.

Every time these officers were confronted, the response followed the same pattern: the messages were “juvenile.” They were “personal.” They had “zero impact” on the investigations. One officer’s family called it “wrongful termination” and said the messages prove he’s “human.” Another allegedly said the woman at the center of the allegations “lied about everything.”

Nobody has said the culture was the problem. Nobody has acknowledged that the institutional environment allowed this to happen. And until that changes, the answer to “is it still happening” is the one that should concern every person who depends on these departments: there’s no evidence it’s stopped.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.


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