Since the mid-1970s, there have been over 190 reported cases of police officers grooming, sexually abusing, or engaging in inappropriate behavior with Explorers, the vast majority of whom were underage girls.

[4] Investigation by the Marshall Project has revealed that lack of oversight is common in the program, and that in many cases, armed police officers are allowed to be alone with teenagers.

[6] There are no reported cases of Learning for Life revoking a police department's ability to operate an Explorer program over failed oversight leading to one or several incidents of sexual abuse.

[6] Boy Scouts of America hired Michael Johnson, a former detective, to be the national director of youth protection in 2010.

"[3] In 1996, John Ferraro, police officer and mentor in the Explorers program was accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl.

He died by suicide soon after the allegations surfaced, and in the note he left behind he wrote, "I'm not the only person who's having sex with a minor at the police department...

An outside investigation sparked by the allegations against Ferraro revealed that 11 officers in the departments near St. Petersburg, Florida had sexually abused or raped Explorers in the previous ten years.

He was arrested after a Texas Ranger set up a hidden camera to catch Ariaz in the act of sexual abuse.

[3][11] When Birchmore informed Farwell that she was pregnant with his child in 2021, the charges allege that he killed her and staged the scene as suicide by hanging.

Subsequent pathologists and experts who reviewed Sandra Birchmore's autopsy report concluded that the findings were not consistent with the position the body was found in.

[3][11] In 2000, Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to disband the Los Angeles Police Department's Explorer Program due to the Scouts of America's policies (at the time) prohibiting homosexual, atheist, or agnostic members, which violated city laws preventing associations with businesses that discriminate.