SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) — When an on-duty police officer was shot and killed by a colleague a month ago, residents of Santa Maria, Calif., were horrified. Outrage grew when they learned the shooting occurred as fellow officers tried to arrest the policeman on suspicion he was having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in the city’s “Police Explorers” program.
It turns out, inappropriate relationships between officers and youths in the junior police program aren’t all that unusual. An Associated Press examination of news accounts during the 21 years since the Explorers was spun off from the Boy Scouts of America found at least 97 cases involving officers accused of sexual assault on young people in the program.
Experts say young people are reluctant to report incidents because police are the ultimate authority figures.
