New Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox was beaten by fellow officers in 1995
BOSTON - Boston's new police commissioner has a unique perspective on policing. Once mistaken for a suspect, Michael Cox was beaten by fellow officers. No one was ever charged in the beating and two of the officers involved in the incident are still on the department.
Cox spoke exclusively with the I-Team in 2020 about the incident
It happened in January of 1995. Cox was a Boston Police officer working in plain clothes in Roxbury. He and his partner heard a radio call about a shooting and saw the getaway car.
Cox says he got out and chased one of the suspects, who jumped over a fence. Cox climbed the fence right behind him and got hit from behind. "I was hit in the back of my head, and when I turned around I got hit in the front of my head," Cox said in the 2020 interview.
At one point when the beating was going on Cox says he heard someone say "stop he's a cop."
"I kind of remember trying to get up at some point and seeing a silhouette of a police officer," Cox said.
Mistaken for a suspect, Cox was beaten by fellow officers who left him on the street bleeding until EMS arrived. Cox says he was pretty unrecognizable and suffered serious injuries.
None of the officers were ever criminally charged for the beating. He says the department tried to cover up what happened, some even harassing and threatening his family. "It was clear that these people wanted me gone," Cox said.
But he wouldn't quit and spent more than three decades with BPD rising to the highest uniform rank before leaving to lead the Ann Arbor Police and now returning to Boston as commissioner.
Asked why he doesn't seem bitter; Cox says policing is a calling for him. "I love helping people, I love meeting all kinds of diverse folks and helping them solve problems," Cox said. "I love to do that and, in this job, you can do that a lot."
Cox won a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and the police department, but it took until 2011 for him to be compensated for all that he went through.