CANTON — Canton says it wants a new police chief. What it really needs is an exorcist.

After years of scandal, the town is kicking off its search for a permanent leader of the Canton Police Department — a force branded “toxic” and accused of burying evidence, botching investigations, and covering for insiders.

A community forum is set for Sept. 17 at Canton High School, where residents are invited to list their demands for the next chief. Town Administrator Charles Doody has also hired consultants to guide the search, promising a hire by the end of 2025.

Interim chief Joseph Perkins, a 35-year veteran, has been holding the badge since July after Helena Rafferty quietly retired. Perkins has cast himself as a “coach,” pledging to keep reforms alive while the town figures out who will take the big chair.

But the scandals that wrecked Rafferty’s tenure still hang in the air. The Boston Herald reported how the department came under fire over the 2022 death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe and the 2021 death of Canton resident Sandra Birchmore.

O’Keefe’s death was a national spectacle. Prosecutors accused his girlfriend, Karen Read, of murder — only for a jury to clear her in June. The trial exposed sloppy work, missing evidence, and raised suspicions that local cops protected their own.

Birchmore’s case was even darker. At 23, she was found dead in her apartment, quickly ruled a suicide. But years later, a Stoughton police detective was charged with strangling her and staging the scene. A cover-up by cops who knew too much? That’s what critics still believe.

Those twin scandals forced Canton to spend $198,000 on an outside audit, which delivered a damning verdict: the public doesn’t trust its police. And that credibility crisis now defines the chief search.

Officials talk about “transparency” and “community engagement.” But for many, the next chief’s job is brutally simple: confront the past head-on, or the department stays toxic.

Canton doesn’t just need a new chief. It needs someone willing to rip the rot out by the roots. Otherwise, the scandals that rocked O’Keefe and Birchmore will haunt every press conference, every patrol car, and every badge that comes after.