BOSTON — A prominent firm has inked a contract to audit the Canton Police Department, an agency beset by its proximity in two high-profile Massachusetts criminal cases: the murder investigation into Karen Read and the alleged murder of Sandra Birchmore.

The winning bid was inked Oct. 25 with 5 Stones intelligence, Inc., based in Tennessee. The “comprehensive and exhaustive Independent Police Audit,” as proposal documents described it, is to be completed by April 30, 2025, on a budget of $198,000, according to the signed agreement. The town proposed a maximum budget of $200,000 in its request.

5 Stones is currently auditing the actions and procedures of the U.S. Capitol Police as well as the U.S. National Guard deployment during the riot in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, according to agreement documents. The firm still expressed confidence that it will have the audit done ahead of schedule.

The audit request came about due to intense local and regional scrutiny — and then national attention — following the deaths of both Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, a resident of Canton, whose body was found Jan. 29, 2022, frozen on the Canton front yard of a BPD colleague; and Sandra Birchmore, whose body was found in her Canton apartment in February 2021 in what the feds have since described as a staged suicide scene.

“Recent events involving the unfortunate and untimely death of a Town resident have sparked concerns regarding how the department operates every day in police matters,” the audit prospectus states. “This concern resulted in a vote at the November 2023 Special Town Meeting to engage an independent consulting firm to ‘audit’ most aspects of the Police department’s operations.”

Norfolk County prosecutors charged O’Keefe’s girlfriend, the Mansfield financial analyst and Bentley University lecturer Karen Read, with his murder. They say that she backed her Lexus SUV into him at great speed just ahead of a major snowstorm and left him to freeze and die in the front yard of 34 Fairview Road following yet another fight in the troubled relationship.

Local prosecutors did not charge anyone for Birchmore’s death — but the feds did. They charged former Stoughton Police Officer Matthew Farwell earlier this year with killing Birchmore. Prosecutors say the cop groomed her beginning in her early teens while she was a member of a police discovery program for children and then took her virginity when she was 15. They say he decided to kill her because he had gotten her pregnant and he didn’t want his criminal affair exposed.

The Herald has reached out for comment to both 5 Stones CEO Brian Talay and a member of the Canton special board dealing with the audit and will update this story if those requests are returned.

The audit

The project aims to establish for the community both “what the department is doing well, and more importantly, what the department could improve upon.”

The scope, including to town documents, includes a deep review of “policies, procedures, and regulations” regarding the department’s day-to-day work, including whether its crime scene protocols, professional standards and procedures, hierarchical structure and organization, hiring and training practices, and evidence processing and handling are in compliance with industry standards and procedures.

The audit will also review the department’s finances, its management and culture, as well as its interactions with the public and its governing bodies including its protection of citizen privacy and personal information, adherence to conflict of interest laws and regulations, the effectiveness and organization of the department’s oversight by the town select board, and how it handles civil rights complaints.

The audit is to also include recommendations for “necessary improvements to all aspects of the Police Department.”

Bids

The scope raised eyebrows of bidders, with one bidder response included in documents provided to the Herald indicating that it was “exceptionally ambitious,” especially for its budget and 5-month timeline.

“With all due respect, we are hard-pressed to imagine that any reputable firm would be able to deliver a credible audit within these parameters,” the bidder wrote, and that “a minimum of 12 months is more realistic, even for a small police agency.”

The town’s response was that “any proposal must meet the specifications” of the proposal.

The proposal received five total bids.

5 Stones Intelligence’s bid was a mere $1,000 less than that of Matrix Consulting Group, Ltd. but exceeded that of low bidder Del Carmen Consulting, LLC, at $171,040, which the town discarded because that firm scored “substantially lower” than other bidders on the town’s criteria.

The firm Effective Law Enforcement for All bid $200,000 to $250,000, whereas the firm CAER Digital Forensics Services, LLC, threw the proposed budget out of the window with a bid of $1.5 million.

The investigative team

The audit will be led by former senior agents at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The project manager is listed as Matthew Germanowski, a 31-year member of the DEA, who ended his career there with six years as the “Senior deciding official,” according to his LinkedIn profile, before moving over to 5 Stones where he works as director.

The senior investigator is identified as Brian McKnight, who is also a 30-year DEA special agent, who once led the Chicago field office of the agency and served as the DEA’s chief inspector — which 5 Stones says is the third-highest special agent position at the agency.

Rounding out the team is investigator Steven Craig Underwood, a 31-year IRS investigator who now serves as the director of financial operations with 5 Stones; and investigator Ric Bachour, a 22-year DEA agent who also has a history in Massachusetts law enforcement, both as a detective for the Revere Police Department and as a State Trooper.

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