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 22C SECTION 63 (Special State Police Officer Warrant). 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 but that never happened. Various community policing programs were implemented for staff and students.

After Chief Shaw was ousted by former VP Brian O'Leary, a long time employee and Sergeant, James Newell was picked to lead the Department.

His tenure was marked with a total change in gears for the Depatement. Accreditation was scrapped, and the Accreditation Manager, Officer Olivera, left the Department to pursue municipal policing in Central Massachusetts in the Town of Harvard.

In October 2010, Chief Shaw was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal and retired to avoid being sanctioned. It is unclear whether the College enriched his retirement benefits to induce him to retire, or if he did so of his own accord. One of Chief Newell's handpicked underlings replaced him, Lieutenant Christopher Cummings. Lieutenant Cummings was first hired in 2006 and soon after resigned. He returned in 2007, and within a short time, he was promoted in a non-competitive process to the rank of Sergeant. In 2010, he again was promoted, this time to Lieutenant. When Interim Chief Cummings took over from Chief Newell, that Lieutenant position was not filled, and remains vacant.