Story Archive

Learning Responsibility

Forty-six Massachusetts state troopers have been, one way or another, accused in connection with a scandal where they allegedly claimed overtime they didn’t work. Their whole troop was dissolved. But the number of officers federal authorities prosecuted is much smaller: just seven troopers and one ex-lieutenant pleaded guilty. “When I first learned that I was going to face federal criminal charges,” Heath P. McAuliffe said, he thought “it wasn’t fair that I was one of a handful of troopers being singled out for federal prosecution and having my career and reputation ruined.” After all, “almost all of my colleagues at Troop E were doing the same thing.” But after discussing it with a clergyman and a therapist, he told the judge in a letter before sentencing, he came to a different view: “It really doesn’t matter ... that only a handful of us were singled out for federal prosecution. I am responsible for my own conduct.” With the “great authority” police are given, he said, “they have to be beyond reproach.” McAuliffe was sentenced to one day in jail already served, plus home confinement and supervised release. (AC/Boston Globe) ...With his new insight, he should’ve been sentenced to go back on patrol.