By Flint McColgan
Boston Herald
BOSTON — The Massachusetts State Police has launched a new “Excellence Initiative” to claw back some public trust following recent embarrassments and improve its services and investigations.
“The Excellence Initiative is not just a plan — it’s a promise,” MSP Col. Geoffrey Noble said in a video announcement. “A promise to our communities and a promise to our troopers and to the future of this department.”
Noble said that the initiative serves as a “strategic plan to modernize how we operate, deepen public trust and support every member of this department with the structures, training and leadership needed to succeed.”
He identified four goals: “strengthening our foundation from within,” “accountability” to the public, deepening community connection and outreach, and enhancing crime prevention and violence reduction efforts.
‘From within’
Noble, who was appointed commander of the MSP last September, said that he’s refreshed the agency’s command staff, including a new deputy superintendent and division commanders.
The MSP has also reached out to the International Association of Chiefs of Police to review the MSP’s recruit training — a development first announced following the death of MSP recruit Enrique Delgado-Garcia during a boxing “training exercise” around the time Noble was hired.
Delgado-Garcia’s death led to scrutiny and calls for investigation by groups like the ACLU , the Latino Law Enforcement Group of Boston , and others. Since Delgado-Garcia was a former staffer with the Worcester DA’s office, the case was given to an independent investigator.
This goal also includes a new “skills-based promotional process,” the agency says, that “evaluates leadership, communication, and service history for promotions,” the development of a new leadership training program, and programming to “support trooper resilience, well-being and mental health.”
Accountability
Noble in a video announcing the initiative said, “Public trust must be earned and maintained every day.”
Under this goal, the MSP says it has enhanced its training programs — including advanced training for 500 investigators so far that focuses on case management, courtroom testimony, and investigative best practices. The agency says it has also restructured the roles of captains, launched a “field supervisor” pilot program, and made it so leadership operates “under mission-aligned key performance indicators.”
It also includes the creation of a “Quality Assurance Unit” to monitor and evaluate the quality of investigations, more audits of trooper body-worn camera footage to “help ensure trooper conduct aligns with departmental standards and public expectations.”
Elements of this goal were first announced in a statement Noble released the same day last month that a Norfolk Superior Court jury acquitted murder defendant Karen Read , of Mansfield , of all charges other than drunken driving.
It was her second trial on charges that she murdered her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe , on Jan. 29, 2022 . The investigation was headed up by MSP detectives, one of whom, Michael Proctor , was fired for his behavior during the investigation, for which two of his supervisors were also placed under internal review but received no major repercussions.
“The events of the last three years have challenged our Department to thoroughly review our actions and take concrete steps,” Noble said in the June 19 statement, with those steps being those announced in goal 2 of the Excellence Initiative.
Outreach
Noble said that “strong communities build safer communities,” and to that end he said the MSP launched a Community Affairs Office headed by a civilian that will conduct “outreach programming” statewide. Under this goal the MSP also created a six-week Citizen’s Academy in which “key community stakeholders” will learn how MSP operates.
Crime prevention
Finally, the MSP will have a long-term focus on “proactive enforcement, data-informed policing, and strong partnerships to reduce violence, protect critical infrastructure, and support safer communities statewide.”
Under this goal, the MSP said it is “enhancing” its threat response and crisis management capabilities, its data and intelligence sharing between agencies, and its use of analytics and crime data to target those who drive the violence in the state. It will also bolster trooper presence in the communities, including through public safety education programs and by safeguarding “critical infrastructure” across the state.
An MSP spokesperson did not immediately respond Wednesday to a Herald request for further information on some of these initiatives.
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