Talk:Massachusetts State Police

Governor of Massachusetts

The article states that the State Police was founded by Governor Calvin Coolidge in 1865, but the Governor at that time was John Albion Andrew, Coolidge is recorded as being Governor from 1919 to 1921, Coolidge was born in 1872 so is the date of founding wrong?. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.234.40.222 (talk) 04:38, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

Untitled
If this article listed its sources, it would be an excellent addition to Good articles. -- llywrch 16:46, 9 December 2005 (UTC)


 * For the parts of the article I wrote, I mainly combbled together information from the Mass. State Police website, knowledge from friends in Massachusetts who're familiar with the State Police, and a smattering of articles from the Boston Globe tracking controversies regarding the diversity of the MSP. It'd be kickass if this was listed as a "good article", though to be honest it would be a big pain to have to track down articles on the Globe since most of them get archived for a fee Sol. v. Oranje 02:06, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

If you're worried about paying to access Globe articles, if you have a Massachusetts library card, you can go to http://mblc.state.ma.us/books/magazine/newspapers.php and search the Boston Globe archives for free

additional information about vehicles
Just to add to info:

The MSP has Ford Tauruses used for agressive driver enforcement. They are unmarked-patrol with many lights. The Taurus are not just for ranking officers and detectives.

Ford Fusions, Ford Explorers and Ford Focuses are also used for ranking officers and detectives. (The Explorers are also used in the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit -- targetings mostly Tractor-Trailers.)

There are also many other vehicles which I will not list. Good article, good information.

Helicopters
Air Wing uses AS 355s, not Bell 206s, edited to make up for that Kilonum (talk) 22:33, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

CPAC Units
This article should say something about the troopers assigned to the various District Attorney's offices. Working together with officers assigned from other departments, these units are a very important part of the investigative effort for homicides and other serious crimes. --Conant Webb 01:43, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Confusion on names
I find this article rather confusing in the way it designates its subject. In places it talks about the Massachusetts State Police and in others just State Police, which is fine as a shorter form given the context of the article.

But then it starts talking about the Department of State Police without really explaining what is meant. Are we talking about a different police organisation (perhaps the internal police of the Massachusetts Department of State), a department of the Massachusetts state government responsible for managing/funding the MSP, a part of the MSP, a different name for the same thing, or what. To make it even more confusing, we then get the Division of State Police!. Can somebody copy edit the article to explain. Thanks. -- Chris j wood 14:09, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

hi, i would also like to comment upon something that i find a bit confusing about this article. if you look at chapter 22c the dept of state police in the massachusetts general laws, you will find that it states that the MSP is organized into four divisions under the colonel of state police : division of field services, division of investigation and intelligence, division of special police services, and the division of support services. the head of each of each division is designated by and answers to the colonel, and holds whatever rank the colonel may determine.

in this article, organization is listed (under the colonel of state police) as the field services division, investigative services division, administrative services division, standards and training division, and then there is the police academy and the forensic services group. in the rankings there is five lieutenant colonels listed and i would assume that each heads up one more of these divisions, but that is not made clear.

i think that some of the divisions listed in the article are designated subdivisions of the four major divisions listed in the general laws.

since the heads of the four divisions are of undetermined rank in the general laws, does this mean that the administrative organization differs from the chain of command set up by the colonel when designating the rank of each division head, therefore creating a seemingly different structure than the one layed out in the general laws?

i am confused by this and i think that the article could be a bit more specific about hierarchy/ structure — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.232.37.12 (talk) 18:48, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Images in Pop Culture Section
Before you go reinserting the pictures,consider WP:FAIRUSE "As few non-free content uses as possible are included in each article and in Wikipedia as a whole". So before you go re-adding them consider this.  Sasha  Call   06:41, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Sourcing
Remember that everything in Wikipedia has to be sourced from reliable published sources per WP:V. Personal knowledge, however authentic, is not acceptable. Gordonofcartoon 21:15, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Refining the Town Names in the Troops Section
If anyone can refine the links to the towns with the barracks list it would be awesome. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mbta108 (talk • contribs) 03:42, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Factual dispute about MSP birthdate
This article, citing an online article as a source, states that the Massachusetts State Police is the oldest state law enforcement agency in the country because it was born in 1865. That distinction appears to go to Connecticut State Police, which was founded in 1903 (source: "State Trooper: America's Troopers and Highway Patrolmen" - Turner Publishing Company 2001). Furthermore, I checked both MSP and CSP websites. While I didn't find anything on the MSP website about its history, CSP website claims their agency is the oldest. MSP according to my source was founded in 1921, well after Connecticut State Police (1903), Pennsylvania State Police (1905), New York State Police (1917) and West Virginia State Police (1919), during the automobile age. But there appears to be wide information available on the Internet from varying sources (forums, private state police sites, etc.) saying that MSP was born in 1865, making it de facto the oldest force in state law enforcement. That appears to be incorrect, however, as during that time, it was an MSP predecessor, a state constabulary, that was acting as a state police agency. It's like saying the United Nations Organization wasn't born in 1945 but in the 1920s when its predecessor, the League of Nations, was active. The MSP as it is known today was created in 1921. But if some people are still convinced that MSP is indeed the oldest state police department in the nation, then the Connecticut State Police entry should be edited accordingly because there is information in there that suggests it deserves the same honor. - Ramses / User:Ramsescoly

Case resolved, it seems
Well, several years after this discussion started, CSP own website now (re)states that "The Connecticut State Police is one of the oldest state police agencies in the United States" -- and not the oldest as it previously said. It now appears that it is generally accepted Massachusetts State Police is the oldest state law enforcement agency in the country. Most articles on the web put MSP birthdate in 1865 instead of 1921, a date seen as when the agency expanded its manpower rather than its creation. MSP website reads, "The Massachusetts State Police was created in 1865, making it the oldest statewide law enforcement agency in the nation." With both agencies no longer contradicting themselves -- and their respective entries on here relaying the facts -- the case seems closed. - Ramses Coly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ramsescoly (talk • contribs) 05:59, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

protection unit
Is there an Executive Protection unit responsible for protecting the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, like in New York and Connecticut? Perhaps we could add it to the page? 74.69.11.229 (talk) 16:11, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

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