The Canton Police Department audit dropped on the same day as the Karen Read retrial started and includes recommendations on how the crime scene surrounding the body of victim John O’Keefe could have been worked better.

The front yard of 34 Fairview Road in Canton was a hotbed of police and EMS activity in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022, as Boston Police Officer O’Keefe lay dead or dying there. The handling of the crime scene by the local police in those crucial early hours has been widely criticized, with Read defense seizing on investigative and protocol failures during the first trial.

The death of O’Keefe, a Canton resident, and the controversy surrounding how local police handled the scene spurred a local movement to have the local police department audited. The town inked a deal last October with 5 Stones intelligence, Inc. — the lowercase “i” is part of the name — for a “comprehensive and exhaustive Independent Police Audit” to be completed by April 30 and at a budget of $198,000.

The 206-page audit delivered by 5 Stones deals with the department as a whole with a scope that included “crime scene protocols, professional standards, accountability processes, organizational structure, and other operational aspects” as well as a review of the finances. But the report wasted no time highlighting its findings of how the Canton Police Department handled the O’Keefe crime scene.

The executive summary of their findings included several recommendations:

The police failed to photograph O’Keefe’s body where it lay before Canton Fire EMS members moved him to the ambulance.
Interviews with critical witnesses at the scene should have been conducted at the police department building and “Consensual Recorded Witness Interviews” should have been made. The report mentions Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts, the two women who discovered O’Keefe’s body with Read, by name as examples.
Both Canton and state police should have maintained a presence at the crime scene pending secondary crime scene searches.
Finally, Canton Police should have preserved all their surveillance camera video recordings while Read’s Lexus SUV, the alleged murder weapon, “was housed at Canton PD from January 29 through February 2, 2022, should have been requested and turned over early in the Karen Read case to lead investigators for any action as deemed appropriate.”

This is a developing story.