Mike Cox was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1965, the youngest of six children in an African-American family. Cox attended private school in Brookline, then the private Milton Academy for one year, where he faced class-based discrimination. He moved to Wooster School in 1981 and was admitted to Providence College in 1984. Cox frequently experienced his differences from other private school students as a class issue. When he joined the Boston Police Department, he befriended many white officers and was seen as color-blind.[4]
Career
Early career and friendly fire incident
In the early 1990s when Cox joined the Boston Police Department (BPD), crime was high in minority neighborhoods, and among BPD officers, loyalty overruled training, resulting in widespread brutality and a code of silence. BPD officers frequently used stop and frisk tactics on black men and women, and beat black men with impunity. Lying under oath was common. A mayoral blue-ribbon commission to reform the police and a permanent injunction placed by a judge had both failed to change police culture. As a plainclothes officer, Cox was mistaken for a suspect and briefly beaten while still in training, and once purposefully hit by a police vehicle and pinned to a wall. He recovered quickly both times so did not file complaints.[4]
In 1995, Cox's car was at the front of a high-speed chase which had involved several cars from the BPD and other departments. Cox continued the chase on foot, but was again mistaken for a suspect and this time badly beaten by four officers and hospitalized, suffering a serious brain injury. After the officers realized his identity, they quickly abandoned him to bleed on the sidewalk, and he learned only from newspaper reports that they had failed to report the incident. Cox began receiving harassing phone calls from other officers even before he had decided whether to file a complaint.[4] A lawsuit ultimately led to BPD settling with Cox for $900,000 in damages, as well as $400,000 in attorneys' fees.[3] No officer admitted to the beating. Following the battle in court, three of the officers were eventually fired, but one, Dave Williams, successfully sued for unjust termination and was returned to the service in 2006. Williams was again fired for brutality in 2009, and again reinstated. As of 2023, Williams is assigned to domestic violence cases.[5] Cox's story was the subject of the book The Fence, written by author and former reporter Dick Lehr of The Boston Globe.[4]
As of 2013, Cox had advanced to Deputy Superintendent in the BPD.[3] By 2019, Cox had advanced to Superintendent, the second highest rank in the BPD, serving as leading the Bureau of Professional Development and the Police Academy.[6]
^ abThe police commissioner is a City of Boston position appointed by the Mayor of Boston; the highest rank within the Boston Police Department proper is Superintendent-in-Chief.
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