The fallout continues from the State Police overtime scandal. On Thursday, Governor Charlie Baker and Massachusetts State Police Superintendent Colonel Christopher Mason revealed plans to clean up the department and restore the public’s trust.
Baker spoke to 252 new recruits Thursday morning and reminded them about the importance and sanctity of law enforcement. Several minutes later, he introduced his plan to overhaul the Mass. State Police.
“Today I’m filing legislation to allow the Colonel to take swift action against troopers who do not live up to the oath they’ve sworn to uphold," Baker said.
His plan would:
- Increase the Colonel’s ability to immediately suspend troopers without pay if they’re accused of serious violations.
- Create a Cadet program to find a more diverse pool of recruits.
- Eliminate the requirement that the next State Police Colonel must be promoted from within the department.
A series of controversies have plagued the department in recent years, including the overtime abuse scandal at Troop E that resulted in the elimination of the barracks and ten troopers facing criminal charges.
“I find that we’re turning a corner, that morale is improving,” said Col. Mason.
Mason was appointed the head of the Mass. State Police in November, following Kerry Gilpin’s retirement. He said there have already been major changes at the department:
- They’ve added GPS tracking devices to nearly 3,000 police cruisers.
- The Academy now has ethics training specific to time and attendance.
- The department is in process of adding up to 1,500 body cameras and 1,000 dash cameras to state police vehicles.
“As unfortunate as what happened in Troop E was, I think we are beginning to—we own that. We’ve learned from those lessons. We’ve put some systems and processes in place that will hopefully prevent that from happening again and we will hold the line as we move forward,” Mason said.
There were 36 investigations from Troop E that did not result in criminal charges. Mason said those internal reviews are done and in the coming days, he’ll release those findings and how the troopers involved will be disciplined.