‘Wandering officers’
A cycle of trouble follows some officers who land new jobs after leaving old ones over misconduct
In 2015, Ridgefield Police Lt. Craig Worster’s 15-year career in law enforcement was in jeopardy.
Worster faced sexual harassment allegations for allegedly telling female officers sex-related stories, displaying explicit material and unwelcome touching. An internal police department investigation was underway over the allegations and nearing its conclusion.
But the day after being interviewed by internal investigators, Worster resigned citing family matters, according to a news report at the time. The probe reached no formal disposition and no punishment was given.
Four years later and about 500 miles away, Worster became the police chief for the Millinocket Police Department, a woodsy hamlet of 4,300 people in Northern Maine. A year after taking the job, Worster was again accused of sexual harassment — this time by the Millinocket department’s female deputy chief.
That led Millinocket to fire Worster in
December 2020, triggering a torrent of controversy that culminated in the town disbanding its tiny police force. Worster’s termination was later overturned, a decision the town is now appealing.
Worster’s saga, however, is not unique, a Hearst Connecticut Media Group investigation has found. Instead, his case underscores a national issue of police officers who land in trouble at one department, resign while under investigation or are fired, and then move on to another department. In some cases, such officers are again accused of misconduct after switching departments.
There is no complete tally of how many such officers there are nationwide. But a recent study found that, in the state of Florida alone, about 800 officers in any given year over a recent three-decade period had found new police jobs after being fired from other departments for misconduct.
Researchers who headed the study said that was likely an undercount of such so-called “wandering officers” in part because there is no comprehensive national database of police misconduct, which hampers departments’ efforts to track misconduct by other officers. Activists have pushed for such a database as a critical reform that would help departments identify and avoid hiring officers with prior serious misconduct.
Other cases of officers getting new law enforcement jobs despite troubled pasts have been documented around the country, including in New York, Ohio and Worster’s case in Maine.
Hearst Connecticut’s investigation also took a deeper look into two additional examples of local officers who resigned while under internal investigation or were fired by their departments for misconduct and later hired by another police department in the state. There may well be other Connecticut cases; uncovering examples is challenging because internal police records about officer misconduct are not publicly available, and obtaining them often requires formal requests under the state Freedom of Information law, which can be a slow and inconsistent process.
Hearst Connecticut’s investigation exposes gray areas in Connecticut hiring rules and procedures that have allowed officers to land new jobs at local police departments despite problematic pasts.
Dan Barrett, legal director of the Connecticut Chapter of the ACLU, said the system for hiring police officers in Connecticut is not foolproof. He said it’s common for officers to resign during an internal investigation and then move on to another police job.
“That’s why they do it,” Barrett said. “It makes good business sense. It stops the investigation cold and prevents the conclusion that they broke a rule. They are free to get another cop job.”
Police officials, meanwhile, defended the hiring standards set for departments statewide.
Danbury Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour, president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, said departments try diligently to follow those requirements and hire quality officers.
“We do the best we can to speak with internal affairs divisions and get the records from other departments as part of the background investigation,” Ridenhour said. “I don’t think any department wants someone else’s problem.”
Ridenhour said Connecticut has taken steps to avoid problems that wandering officers have created in other states.
“I think Connecticut has tried successfully to address that,” Ridenhour said. “We have to disclose any adverse information. You can’t say ‘No, you are not getting their files.’ I don’t think you see that in Connecticut like in other places.”
Plainville case
In August 2020, the Plainville Police Department hired Justin Cullen, a former Manchester officer who resigned weeks earlier during an internal investigation into alleged off-duty sexual misconduct. Cullen was accused of engaging in non-consensual sex while off duty in Southington, according to a lawsuit filed on Cullen’s behalf in state Superior Court. The court documents note the allegation was referred to Southington police, which closed an investigation into the matter after the alleged victim refused to pursue it.
Manchester determined Cullen should be terminated as a probationary employee and he was offered the option of resigning in lieu of termination, the court documents state.
That decision to resign left Cullen with a problem regarding his new job with Plainville.
Under Connecticut law, an officer who resigns or retires during an internal investigation for “malfeasance or serious misconduct” — or is fired for the conduct — cannot be hired by another department unless the officer was later exonerated of the conduct.
When hiring an officer, police departments must complete a background check, obtain past disciplinary reports if the applicant previously worked as an officer, and detail any offenses that disqualify the applicant from being hired.
A form containing that information is sent for review and approval to the state Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council, which provides a final check on whether an officer can be hired and certifies officers — essentially providing the license to work in law enforcement.
In November 2020, the POST Council rejected Cullen’s request for certification to work for Plainville, citing the fact that he resigned while “under investigation for malfeasance or other serious misconduct.”
Cullen administratively appealed the POST Council decision and filed an appeal with the state Superior Court, according to court records.
The case highlights a potential problem with the state law that regulates police hires and guides POST Council approval or rejection — what exactly constitutes “malfeasance or serious misconduct”? The Cullen case showed those terms can be open to interpretation and are not well defined.
The rules that govern hiring an officer are primarily established through laws passed by the state Legislature. New hiring standards were put in place last year through a sweeping Police Accountability Act passed by the state Legislature. Those rules are interpretated and administered by the POST Council, whose membership was expanded under the Police Accountability Act.
During a hearing before the POST Council, Plainville and Cullen’s lawyers argued the alleged misconduct did not fit the definition of, or rise to the level of, “malfeasance or serious misconduct,” according to minutes of the proceeding.
The appeal Cullen’s lawyers filed, which included the arguments made before the POST Council, was dismissed on the grounds the court lacked jurisdiction.
Lawyers representing Cullen in Superior Court, declined to comment, as did several lawyers representing Plainville and Manchester police.
In the wake of the Cullen case, the POST Council has been discussing how to more clearly define “malfeasance or serious misconduct,” minutes show. State lawmakers earlier this year failed to pass a bill that sought to provide a more specific definition for the terms “malfeasance or serious misconduct.” The bill did not change or alter rules for hiring an officer or the criteria that an applicant must meet.
Milford Police Chief Keith Mello and chairman of the state’s POST Council defended Connecticut’s hiring practices.
“There has been a lot of really good things [done to prevent] hiring people involved in serious misconduct and malfeasance,” Mello said.
But, Howard Friedman, a Boston civil rights lawyer and member of the National Police Accountability Project, said even carefully-crafted hiring procedures can produce questionable results — and Connecticut is an example of that.
“Sometimes the system does not always work,” he said.
Fairfield case
Another local case reviewed by Hearst Connecticut happened earlier this year when Fairfield police hired Dan Loris as an officer. Loris was fired in 2020 by the Shelton Police Department for ethics and sexual harassment violations and misconduct while on duty.
That termination resulted from an internal investigation into photos of officers changing their clothes in the department parking lot that were posted on social media. Loris was involved, but it’s unclear exactly what role he played in the matter.
Loris filed a grievance to appeal his firing.
According to a federal lawsuit filed in June on behalf of Loris and five other officers also fired by Shelton last year, the officers’ actions were meant to illustrate the impact of the closure of police headquarters bathrooms to officers in April 2020.
“There were no hand-washing stations or any place to change your clothes other than in the parking lot,” the suit states, calling the conditions “unsanitary, humiliating, and unsafe.”
Michelle Holmes, a lawyer who represents Loris the other officers, said the officers should have never been fired and pointed out that only Loris has been
“Even when well-intentioned — as a second chance for a hardworking cop — hiring a wandering officer is risky business. ... Worse yet, wandering officers may ‘infect’ other officers upon arrival, causing misconduct to metastasize to the farthest reaches of the law-enforcement community.”
A 2020 study published in the Yale Law Journal on so-called wandering officers
able to find a new job.
“It’s highly likely the terminations in my case will be overturned by an arbitrator because they were retaliatory,” said Holmes. “Not every fired officer, such as Dan Loris and the five other Shelton officers I represent, are fired for just cause.”
Holmes said state law disregards the possibility that a termination could be overturned by the state Board of Mediation and Arbitration, which settles union labor disputes.
“The POST legislation just assumes the terminations are just but in this case they were not,” Holmes said, referring to state law that sets police hiring rules. “I understand the reasoning behind the legislation, but I believe it needs serious consideration and revamping.”
Shelton officials have defended their actions regarding Loris.
“The lawsuit is not based on any facts,” Shelton Police Chief Shawn Sequeira told the Shelton Herald in June, a Hearst Connecticut Media publication.
“The facts and circumstances support those disciplined and terminated were based on just cause. We continue to hold our officers accountable as the majority do their job,” Sequeira said. “Police officers are held to a specific standard supported by the police accountability bill.”
Robert Kalamaras, Fairfield’s police chief, said Loris met the requirements to hire him as an officer.
“Officer Loris was hired by Fairfield as a state certified police officer through the Police Officer Standards and Training Council,” Kalamaras said.
“During his thorough background investigation, he has fulfilled all of the state requirements necessary to assume the duties and responsibilities of a police officer and I fully support the decision of the previous chief,” said Kalamaras, pointing out he did not personally hire the officer.
From Ridgefield to Maine
In addition to the two examples where officers moved between departments in-state, Hearst Connecticut closely researched the case of Craig Worster, the officer who resigned amid an internal investigation in Ridgefield and wound up later facing more accusations of misconduct at another job in Maine.
Although Worster’s resignation from Ridgefield in 2015 effectively ended the internal investigation into his conduct without any disciplinary action, the investigative report Hearst Connecticut obtained under state Freedom of Information law details a pattern of misconduct and says his behavior was “pervasive” and that “any reasonable person would conclude that Lt. Worster[’s] actions form a pattern of hostile and abusive behavior.”
According to the report, Worster allegedly would often touch female officers on the shoulder, stand uncomfortably close to them and tell them stories about sex he had with different women.
An unidentified female officer told investigators that Worster massaged her shoulders without asking. “He just walked away without saying anything,” the report quoted the officer as saying.
One female officer told investigators Worster played a video clip of men and women showering together that contained “sexual comments and noises,” according to the report. He also allegedly discussed with female officers whether a woman pulled over for a traffic stop had fake breasts, the report said.
While a female suspect blew into a tube during a breath test to determine alcohol level, Woster allegedly remarked that “I bet she’s good at that or she’s good at that,” the report said.
Five years later, Worster, then the chief of Millinocket Police in Maine, faced more accusations.
Millinocket Deputy Chief Janet Theriault filed a sexual harassment complaint against Worster. Details of the complaint have not been made public.
The accusations prompted the town to fire Worster in December 2020.
Weeks later, the small Millinocket police department was disbanded and neighboring East Millinocket was given an 18month contract to take over the town’s policing duties.
In February 2021, the Millinocket Personnel Appeals Board overturned Worster’s termination. The town appealed the ruling, and the issue remains pending. Worster was not reinstated as chief, according to news reports in Maine.
The town manager who hired Worster, John Davis, was fired after the accusations against Worster surfaced.
Millinocket was not Worster’s first policing job in Maine. After leaving Ridgefield, Worster was hired in 2016 by the Wiscasset Police Department, a small town in Southern Maine. He resigned in 2018 following an internal investigation that still has not been made public, according to various news reports.
News reports in Maine show that Worster’s case prompted considerable discussion there about the need to strengthen the transparency of police disciplinary records and the overall hiring process.
Attempts to reach Worster for comment were unsuccessful. An attorney for Worster in Maine did not respond to messages.
Ridgefield Police Chief Jeffery Kreitz did not respond to questions about whether Maine officials asked his department for Worster’s disciplinary records and other details of his employment.
Millinocket officials did not respond to a request for comment on Worster’s employment and termination.
A national problem
A 2020 study published in the Yale Law Journal closely examined police hiring trends in Florida and, in that state alone, found hundreds of working officers who had been fired from previous police jobs.
“In any given year over the last three decades, an average of roughly 1,100 full-time law-enforcement officers in Florida walk the streets having been fired in the past, and almost 800 having been fired for misconduct, not counting the many who were fired and reinstated in arbitration,” the study said.
But the study’s authors said they were likely undercounting the number of wandering officers in Florida because there is no database that tracks police misconduct.
“Such a tool could help agencies avoid hiring wandering officers who saunter in from other states,” wrote researchers Ben Grunwald, a professor at the Duke University School of Law, and John Rappaport, a University of Chicago Law School professor.
The study, however, did not detail the types of misconduct that led to firing an officer or an officer’s resignation.
“We are not able to identify the specific nature of the misconduct, such as excessive force, embezzlement, substance abuse, and so on,” the authors noted.
The study, which also referenced several other examples of wandering officers around the country, added that departments do not always list the actual misconduct that led to a dismissal or pushed an officer to resign.
Still, the study found that wandering officers tend to move to smaller departments which have difficulty recruiting officers, enjoy fewer resources and do not always conduct background checks.
“Even when well-intentioned — as a second chance for a hardworking cop — hiring a wandering officer is risky business,” the authors wrote.
Wandering officers are also more likely to be fired from their second job, receive complaints for “moral character violations” and violent or sexual misconduct, the study said.
Such officers “are riskier, by our measures, than even officers hired as rookies,” noted the study.
“Worse yet,” the study said, “wandering officers may ‘infect’ other officers upon arrival, causing misconduct to metastasize to the farthest reaches of the lawenforcement community.”
Hiring wandering officers can even bring deadly consequences, as evidenced by a highly publicized case in Cleveland.
In November 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed in a park by a Cleveland police who mistook a fake gun the boy was holding for a real one.
Authorities later learned that the officer, while working at the Independence, Ohio police department, had been deemed emotionally unstable and unfit for duty, a fact he did not disclose on his application to join the Cleveland police. The Cleveland department did not review his personnel file before hiring him, according to a variety of media reports and the study published in the Yale Law Journal.
Efforts for reform
Amid concern over such serious outcomes, lawmakers in some states have taken steps to strengthen hiring practices and track police misconduct.
For example, last year, Pennsylvania enacted a law requiring police departments to retain the reason why an officer was fired or resigned. Those records are to be stored in a confidential database that other departments in the state can access when hiring new officers. Under the new law, if an agency chooses to hire an officer despite prior discipline, the department must publicly post a report explaining its decision.
Meanwhile, activists are also pushing for national solutions, including the creation of a national database of police misconduct so departments can readily obtain records of officers who were decertified — meaning their license to be a cop was taken away — or resigned during an internal investigation to avoid punishment or were fired for misconduct.
But the effort so far has not produced a comprehensive national or state database of police misconduct.
“Unlike many other regulated professions, states often lack the ability to track prior disciplinary action taken against officers,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The National Decertification Index provides a list of officers who lost the right to work in law enforcement. The database contains records on 30,172 officers, including officers from Connecticut. Connecticut is among 11 states that publicly report decertified officers by posting a list on the POST Council’s website.
However, experts say that database is flawed, in part because participation, which is voluntary, is spotty. And the database omits misconduct not serious enough to draw decertification. In many states — Connecticut is not among them — only a felony conviction is sufficient to decertify an officer.
In Connecticut, disqualifying offenses include a felony conviction; resigning or retiring during an internal investigation for “malfeasance or serious misconduct” — or being fired for the conduct; lying on application forms; serious use of force violations and “behavior that undermines public confidence in law enforcement on the job and off the job.”
On the other hand, the National Practitioners Data Bank, which under federal law mandates reporting of misconduct by health care professionals, is far more comprehensive, containing information on malpractice judgements, lost hospital privileges and medical board discipline.
Lynda Garcia, senior director of the policing program at The Leadership Conference, is working on a national database called Accountable Now. The data tool so far includes information from five major cities: Indianapolis, Ind, New Orleans, Baltimore, Austin, and Dallas.
“For almost a decade, civil rights advocates have been pushing for a national database on police use of force to bring greater transparency and accountability to our law enforcement system,” Garcia said.
“Accurate data is critical to revealing the disproportionate impact police violence has on communities of color, Garcia said. “To fix a problem, you need to know how extensive it is.”