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The Massachusetts State Police (MSP) is an agency of the state of Massachusetts responsible for law enforcement and traffic vehicle regulation across the state. At present, it has approximately 2,300 officers and 400 civilian support staff -- making it the largest police agency in the state -- and is headed by Colonel Thomas G. Robbins. Its headquarters are located in Framingham, Massachusetts.
History
The MSP was founded in 1865, making it arguably the oldest state-wide police agency in the United States. The agency remained small and rather informal until 1921, when the MSP was enlarged to comprise 50 officers stationed in barracks across the state with the primary mission of providing law enforcement to rural areas underserved by existing local police agencies. The MSP enlarged its mission to handle primary vehicular regulation on the Commonwealth's interstate and limited-access highways after their development mid-century; during this period, it also established a prescence in protecting Logan International Airport.
For much of the twentieth-century, the MSP was organized along militaristic lines with heavy emphasis on the role of the barracks, Spartan working conditions, and a uniformity in appearance and internal culture. Until recently, the MSP maintained one of the strictest regimens for physical size requirements for applicants. Efforts are being made presently to render the department more racially diverse, as well as more inclusive of women and GLBT officers.
Special Units
Like many other large law enforcement agencies, the MSP has developed several component specialized units designed to meet the agency's expanding role in policing Massachusetts. These special units include:
- MSP S.T.O.P. (Special Tactics and Operations) Team: Serves as the agency's SWAT squad
- MSP S.E.R.T. (Special Emergency Response Team) Team: Serves as a requestable adjunct to local law enforcement agencies requesting state assistance in civil disturbances, special events, or missing persons searches
- MSP Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section
- Governor's Auto Theft Task Force
- MSP Incident Management Assistance Team & Civilian Search and Rescue
- MSP Underwater Recovery Team
- MSP Marine Section: The MSP's river patrol on the Charles and Mystic Rivers
Other specialized squads within the department include a K-9 team, motorcycle squad, mounted unit, and the MSP's Crime Laboratory unit.
MSP in Popular Culture
A Massachusetts State Trooper features prominently in the Norman Rockwell painting "The Runaway"; Rockwell lived for many years in the small town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
The agency serves as a partial-setting for the film Mystic River, in which the characters played by Kevin Bacon and Lawrence Fishburne are MSP detectives.
External link
Massachusetts State Police official website (http://www.mass.gov/msp/)
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