Four police officers have been reassigned and an internal investigation is underway into a serious incident at the Massachusetts State Police Academy, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.
According to a statement from the Massachusetts State Police, they are investigating reports that several trainees were ordered to crawl, in an exercise that was not authorized as part of the training curriculum. Some of the students developed blisters on their hands that required treatment at the Academy Medical Unit.
The crawling exercises “added no value to the training and contradicted the expectations that the MSP command staff explicitly conveyed to the academy staff prior to the start of the current recruit training,” state police said in a statement.
As a result, two Academy training instructors who were supervising the exercises have been reassigned to other roles in the department. The Commander of the Academy and the Executive Officer responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Academy were also removed and replaced. Colonel Christopher Mason also issued a directive explicitly prohibiting such unauthorized training. This specifically reiterated instructions given before recruit training began in May.
The internal investigation is ongoing and agency officials say they “will hold accountable any Academy staff member who is responsible for unauthorized training.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.