A former Gloucester police officer has been permanently stripped of his Massachusetts law enforcement certification after pleading guilty to possessing child sexual abuse material. Alexander Aiello is serving a federal prison term and, with the state panel’s final decision, is barred from holding a police job anywhere in the Commonwealth.
Aiello pleaded guilty in October 2025 and was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison on Jan. 23, 2026, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. Prosecutors said that during an April 28, 2025 investigation, searches of Aiello’s phone, laptop and an encrypted USB thumb drive uncovered a TOR browser and more than 200 files consistent with child sexual abuse material, according to court filings.
State commission pulls his certification
The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission issued a final decision on June 18, 2026 to decertify Aiello, permanently revoking his law enforcement credentials, according to the POST Commission. Commission records note that his certification was first suspended in May 2025 while criminal charges were pending, and that the panel entered a default final decision after he failed to answer an order to show cause.
What decertification means
State law gives the POST Commission authority to suspend or revoke officer certifications and to share revocation information with a national decertification index, as spelled out in Chapter 6E. The panel has used that power repeatedly, placing former officers on the National Decertification Index and barring them from future hiring statewide, according to reporting from Boston.com.
Prosecutors described evidence that Aiello accessed dark web sites using an encrypted browser and wrote that he told U.S. probation officials he would spend “anywhere from three to six hours daily” viewing such content before his arrest, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. The commission’s final decision also notes that staff at the federal correctional institution in Jesup, Georgia, confirmed he received the commission’s notices while incarcerated.
Under the statute, an officer may request hearings and other procedural remedies, but the commission may act where a felony conviction or similar findings require mandatory revocation, as Chapter 6E explains. The outcome closes the door on Aiello’s ability to return to policing in Massachusetts and adds to a growing list of officers who have been decertified by the state panel.
