In This Police Youth Program, a Trail of Sexual Abuse Across the U.S.

The youth program that introduced Birchmore to the officers is among hundreds of such chapters at police agencies around the country. Created by the Boy Scouts of America decades ago, law enforcement Explorer posts are designed to help teens and young adults learn about policing.

Birchmore’s case is among at least 194 allegations that law enforcement personnel, mostly policemen, have groomed, sexually abused or engaged in inappropriate behavior with Explorers since 1974, an ongoing investigation by The Marshall Project has found. The vast majority of those affected were teenage girls — some as young as 13.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240502112333/https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/05/01/police-explorer-sexual-abuse-boy-scouts