The Massachusetts State Police has put two of its officers, Sergeant Gary Cederquist and Trooper Joel Rogers, on unpaid suspension following their federal indictment for their roles in a scheme involving commercial driver license tests, as reported by MSPNews.org. The duo is accused of cutting corners on CDL exams and green-lighting unqualified applicants. They were part of the Commercial Driver Licensing Unit during the time of the alleged offenses, pointing to a potential compromise of road safety standards.
In addition to Cederquist and Rogers, two retired unit members, Calvin Butner and Perry Mendes, who exited the force in 2022 and 2021, respectively are also facing charges on the same case, and the State Police have been active in the federal investigation communicating regularly with the United States Attorney's Office, contributing records and more in response to an onslaught of over 15 subpoenas and requests since fall 2022. An ongoing internal inquiry by the State Police's own Office of Professional Integrity and Accountability is further scrutinizing the accused misconduct.
When the MSP caught wind of the federal probe into the CDL Unit's legal violations and breaches of policy in late 2022, they immediately opened an internal investigation and an audit into the unit’s operations, which highlighted many antiquated procedures and system loopholes; they responded by enacting a slew of reforms from early 2023 aimed at overhauling efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability.
These reforms, which include the mandating of body cameras during CDL tests and increasing the rate of unannounced supervisor visits to examiners in the field, have noticeably marked the MSP's commitment to transparency and integrity in their CDL unit's operations, as detailed in a thorough list of improvements that creates oversight mechanisms where once discretion may have reigned unchecked.
