Police watchdog decertifies former officer from Central Mass.
Massachusetts' police oversight authorities stripped a former Leominster officer of his certification for police work over multiple alcohol-related incidents, ending his law enforcement career in the state.
The officer, Christopher Cunningham, was arrested for drunken driving in 2017 . Charges were dismissed under a law that allows military veterans facing prosecution for some crimes to be diverted into treatment or counseling programs.
In another incident, Cunningham became heavily intoxicated at a New York restaurant and "forcibly kissed" a bartender after he was asked to leave, according to the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission , the police watchdog agency that revoked his certification.
Cunningham is the 66th police officer the board has decertified since it began exercising its power to do so in 2023.
He has 30 days to appeal the commission's Oct. 16 revocation of his certification, though the board noted he did not provide any defense as it weighed the decision. The move carries a lifetime ban from working for a Massachusetts police department or sheriff's office.
Cunningham could not immediately be reached for comment.
He served seven years with the Leominster Police Department before resigning in 2023 while under internal investigation.
Six weeks before his resignation, Cunningham traveled to New York on Jan. 6 "to assist a friend with transporting a firearm back to Massachusetts," according to the commission.
While out of state, he "acted in a highly unprofessional manner" when he became drunk at a restaurant in upstate New York, the board said.
Cunningham "repeatedly displayed his LPD badge, identified himself as an LPD officer, and bragged to other patrons that he was authorized to transport a firearm across state lines because he was a law enforcement officer," according to commission records. "After being asked to leave the restaurant, the Respondent went behind the restaurant's bar, grabbed the bartender by her shoulders, and forcibly kissed her."
Before traveling to New York, Cunningham requested and obtained a leave from the police department for the weekend of his trip so he could attend military training.
He "did not attend military training at any point during that weekend," the commission said.
Cunningham was also issued a "last chance agreement" and suspended from work for six months in 2018.
In late 2017, he was arrested in nearby Lunenburg on a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, according to court records and a report in the Sentinel & Enterprise newspaper in Fitchburg.
A Fitchburg District Court judge ultimately dismissed the charges under the state's Valor Act , which allows judges to direct veterans facing certain charges into treatment or counseling as alternatives to prosecution.
At an April 2018 hearing, Judge Meghan Spring gave Cunningham six months to continue psychiatric treatment.
"The United States of America called on Mr. Cunningham to serve his country," she said, according to a Sentinel & Enterprise report on the hearing. "I think the Valor Act contemplates giving Mr. Cunningham a second chance."
Changes to the law later that year imposed greater restrictions on its use. Still, it allows veterans and active duty military members charged with drunken driving to be diverted from prosecution into treatment if they meet certain criteria .
Many of the officers the commission has decertified have been convicted of criminal charges, ranging from financial crimes to child exploitation to drunk driving.
As in Cunningham's case, the commission can also decertify officers for noncriminal misconduct. It has used that power to ban officers accused of repeatedly using excessive force, falsifying records and using drugs or alcohol on the job.
While Cunningham's misconduct occurred off-the-clock, the board said it reflected "a pattern of unprofessional police conduct that may escalate." It judged him "not fit for duty."
The names of all decertified officers are submitted to a national registry of decertified police, a move designed to alert faraway departments to the officers' histories if they cross state lines in search of police work.
The Massachusetts police oversight commission was created through a 2020 policing reform law that sought to increase state-level scrutiny of the commonwealth's police departments and officers after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer.
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