Male Boston cop who publicly disparaged the rapid advancement of a woman officer in a Worcester suburb wasn't being sexist, commissioner says

Police Commissioner Michael Cox has declined to issue the oral reprimand recommended by the Civilian Review Board for a disparaging comment one of his officers left on a Facebook post by the Grafton Police Department honoring one of its own officers during Women's History Month this past March.

Cox wrote the board that while the officer did, in fact, post the online equivalent of a snort, he was not demeaning the Grafton officer or her gender, but was making a comment about "the politics of the promotion."

As such, that's fine, Cox wrote, "proper, legal and reasonable," even.

The Grafton PD post congratulated the new officer, a former town 911 dispatcher, for "crushing" the department's field-training program and finishing it early in 2022, after which she picked up certifications in sexual-assault investigations and teaching women how to fight off rapists and became a co-founder of a new department "youth mentorship" program.

The Boston officer replied to the post: "Wow less than a year from graduating she did more than the rest of the Department Police Officers ... I'm sure everything is on the level."

The review board said the comment warranted an oral reprimand as sexist and derogatory, but Cox concluded that:

The comments do not refer to the officer in a sexist or derogatory manner. On the contrary, and as stated by [the officer], his comments appear to be more about the politics of the promotion.

The comments, and others in a similar vein, have since been deleted from the post.