Police, public at risk from State Police cruiser crashes

[MADem]

4. It won't be easy to get that information, I suspect....

State Police said they took several steps to upgrade its system for investigating and reviewing crashes four years ago. The agency also noted in its most recent annual report that it began using new reflective material for cruiser decals and modified the emergency lights after noticing “an inordinate number of cruiser crashes occurring during night-time hours.”

But the agency declined to provide copies of any memos or studies the agency may have issued related to car crashes. And Procopio, a State Police spokesman, said the agency never completed a safety report it publicly announced three years ago after several officers were hurt in accidents.

In addition, State Police took eight months to provide the Globe with five years of crash statistics and resisted providing more detailed records.

For example, the State Police estimated it would cost as much as $130,000 for copies of all the accident reports over the last decade. A spokesman justified the estimate by saying there were so many reports that would need to be reviewed and redacted.

I don't get the impression that they would be terribly forthcoming about that kind of information. I also think they tend to take the word of the police over the word of the citizens as the article suggests.

Without dashcams, it's their word against the civilians they hit....