The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission has permanently revoked the certification of former Leominster Police Officer Christopher Cunningham, finding that he is “not fit for duty as an officer and is dangerous to the public.”
According to the commission’s final decision, dated Oct. 16, 2025, Cunningham failed to respond to an Order to Show Cause issued in April 2025 and a subsequent motion for default mailed to his home in August. After receiving no response, the commission entered a default judgment and adopted the findings of its hearing officer.
After reviewing the record, the commission voted on Oct. 16, 2025, to conclude “by clear and convincing evidence” that Cunningham had a “pattern of unprofessional police conduct that may escalate” and “repeated sustained internal affairs complaints,” according to the commission’s final decision.
In addition to the findings detailed in the POST Commission’s report, Cunningham was also arrested for operating under the influence of alcohol in 2017. Those charges were later dismissed under a state law that allows military veterans facing certain offenses to complete treatment or counseling programs in lieu of prosecution.
The POST Commission’s final decision formally revokes Cunningham’s certification under Chapter 6E of the Massachusetts General Laws. The commission also directed its executive director to list Cunningham’s name in the National Decertification Index, a nationwide database used to track officers stripped of law-enforcement credentials.
Misconduct findings
Commission records show Cunningham was employed by the Leominster Police Department from 2016 until his resignation on Feb. 17, 2023. His resignation followed an internal affairs investigation that sustained multiple allegations of conduct unbecoming an officer, incompetence, and falsifying records.
Investigators said that on January 6, 2023, Cunningham traveled to Sidney, New York, to help a friend transport a firearm back to Massachusetts. While there, he allegedly became heavily intoxicated, displayed his badge to restaurant patrons, and bragged that he could carry a firearm across state lines because he was a police officer. According to the findings, after he was asked to leave the restaurant, he went behind the bar, grabbed the bartender by the shoulders, and forcibly kissed her.
The commission said that before and after the incident in New York, Cunningham falsely requested and obtained leave from the Leominster Police Department for military training on the weekend on January 7 and 8, 2023. “The Respondent did not attend military training at any point during that weekend,” the commission said in its report.
On March 2, 2023, the Leominster Police Department sustained allegations stemming from the January 2023 incidents, finding that Cunningham had “engaged in Conduct Unbecoming an Officer, Incompetence, and Falsifying Records.” The department also noted that he had previously served a six-month suspension and signed a “last-chance” agreement in 2018 for unrelated misconduct.
Cunningham has 30 days to appeal the Oct. 16 decision in Superior Court.
