Massasoit Police
The Massasoit Police Department was established in 1966 at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Massachusetts, USA. The Massasoit Police department derives it authority from Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 73, section 18 and Chapter 15A, section 22. The Board of Trustees appoint police officers at the college, much as the Board of Selectmen do in towns and municipalities in the commonwealth. The Massasoit Police department performs the full range of law enforcement duties and community services expected in an urban environment.
Massasoit Police Department was the first community college police department in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to become armed in 2000. With a community of over 12,000 staff and students between two campuses and the city of Brockton, Massasoit chose to form a professional police department. In 1998 they hired police chief, Alfred R. Shaw , a retired Massachusetts State Police sergeant and former police chief in Hellertown, Pennsylvania and Sutton, Massachusetts. He immediately applied for and secured a COPS grant for five new police officers. He implemented a new written exam, interview process, psychological and other tests as their municipal counterparts do. Five of the best candidates were hired out of hundreds of applicants. Two of them are now sergeants, one at MCCPD and one in a municipality while another is a police chief in Massachusetts. MCCPD began to transform to a professional agency with every month that passed. The department was in the process of becoming accredited by the Massachusetts Accreditation Commission and various community policing programs were implemented for staff and students.