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Report exposes culture of hazing and humiliation at Cape Cod police academy
The East Falmouth Police Academy opened its doors in January. By March, academy leadership had been suspended and all staff instructors temporarily removed.
Recruits training at the new East Falmouth Police Academy earlier this year were mentally and physically tormented, denied bathroom breaks, and forced into grueling outdoor exercises — often without proper gear for the below-freezing temperatures, according to a new state report.
The Municipal Police Training Committee report outlines complaints of damaged equipment, physical injuries, and bullying by academy staff. The findings and recommendations follow a six-month investigation aided by the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and launched after multiple police departments expressed concerns about staff conduct in February 2025.
“Student officers were made to engage in activities that had no training purpose or nexus to the job of a police officer,” the report states. “Student officers were denied adequate bathroom breaks. Injuries to student officers were not reported to the MPTC. And student officers were subjected to bullying and unprofessional behavior that created a harmful training environment.”
Previously:
The East Falmouth Police Academy opened its doors in January. By March, academy leadership had been suspended and all staff instructors temporarily removed.
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The MPTC investigation ultimately implicated five instructors and the academy’s director and coordinator, all of whom have been terminated or had their instructor certifications revoked. Four other instructors were not present for or did not participate in the most serious misconduct, and their certifications were reinstated.
“The misconduct at the East Falmouth Academy was unacceptable and inconsistent with our mission and core values,” MPTC Executive Director Rick Rathbun said in a statement. “We acted decisively to suspend those responsible, revoke instructor certifications as warranted, and implement reforms to strengthen oversight.”
Report: Academy director sought ‘shock and awe’
The academy’s director — retired Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan — told investigators he wanted to give the student officers a “shock and awe” experience, according to the MPTC report. However, the documented allegations paint a far more gruesome picture.
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According to the report, academy staff “relentlessly bullied and taunted” one student officer whose first language is not English, believing he had cheated on a homework assignment. Staff ordered the class outside on a snowy day — sans jackets or gloves — and ordered them into a front-leaning rest position on the wet pavement while instructors shouted at them about cheating and dishonesty. Similar episodes played out later that day.
Another morning, as students gathered at a nearby ice arena to organize their gear for the day, instructors surprised them in police cruisers with flashing lights, sirens, and “Metallica-type music” blasting from the speakers. According to the report, staff also made the students line up and hold their equipment bags with their non-dominant hands for several minutes while instructors stomped in puddles, soaking them.
Other times, instructors allegedly ordered the recruits to do burpees, army crawls, knee walks, lunges, body rolls, and other exercises on a steep hill located in a gated private property near the academy. The hill was covered in mud and ice, according to the report, and instructors sometimes pushed recruits’ faces to the ground or put their boots on students’ backs to force them lower to the ground.
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Multiple recruits were physically injured, and two were even sent to the hospital — one for injuries sustained after slipping on the icy hill, and another for exhaustion and dehydration after pulling an all-nighter to finish a mountain of homework assignments, according to the report.
Complaints trickle in
An academic instructor at the site raised concerns to the MPTC on Feb. 12, reporting that many students would return to class “gasping for air” after having been made to do lengthy, intensive physical exercises during what should have been their bathroom breaks.
But, three days after the MPTC’s training chief met with academy staff to go over the rules again, the recruits were subjected to what one described as “easily the worst day (they) had in the academy.” The recruits were allegedly sent back to the icy hill for exercises in below-freezing temperatures and were instructed to lay on their backs and pour their water bottles over themselves, the report states.
Further, students weren’t given bathroom breaks that morning and had only seven or eight minutes to eat lunch, according to the MPTC.
“When the student officers were given bathroom breaks, each break was more miserable than the last,” the report states. One break was allegedly so short that two female recruits had to urinate in shower stalls; during another, the doorway to the bathroom was blocked with gym mats and duffle bags that needed to be cleared before recruits could use the restroom.
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Several police departments spoke up about the mistreatment their student officers experienced, according to the MPTC. For example, the Fall River Police Department’s deputy chief reported damage to recruit uniforms, physical contact between instructors and student officers, excessive training being used as punishment, and staff instructors who allegedly pointed out the style of a female recruit’s underwear in front of the entire class.
The MPTC said its investigation ultimately confirmed academy leaders and several staff instructors engaged in conduct that violated its training policies and code of conduct. The agency has since implemented additional oversight and accountability measures, such as strengthening instructor certification and ethics training requirements, launching a statewide review of training practices, and working out a formal procedure for unannounced audits and site inspections at police academies.
“Every student officer deserves a learning environment built on integrity, respect and fairness,” Rathbun said. “The corrective actions taken reinforce our culture of accountability and ensure our academies reflect the expectations of modern policing.”
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