SPA New Braintree

Kinda saw that one coming.

Mass. State Police will close training academy amid coronavirus concerns

NEW BRAINTREE, Mass. —

5 Investigates has learned that the Massachusetts State Police are working to close their academy for new recruits amid concerns about COVID-19.

There are currently 241 trainees living at the academy in New Braintree, which is now in its 14th week.
The academy was originally scheduled to run until late June, but state police officials told NewsCenter 5 that they are finalizing plans to close the academy and cover the remaining subjects through online learning.

Other police academies in Massachusetts have already suspended operations.

There is no firm date for when the state police will shut down the New Braintree academy, but they are taking precautions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including physical distancing.

A spokesperson said no academy staff or trainees have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Tuesday.

 

14 Weeks!?!
Just make em SSPO's.................................

 

Yup what a joke. Supposedly they are making training days longer but have online training on Saturdays to accelerate the graduation date.

 

Virtual PT


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Posted at 8:02 AM Updated Apr 8, 2020 at 3:56 PM
NEW BRAINTREE - State police announced that their academy will close soon and the current class of more than 240 recruits will complete their training remotely and graduate weeks ahead of schedule because of the pandemic.

While new protocols were put into place at the New Braintree facility, Col. Christopher Mason has decided the current recruit class, the 85th, will finish training through online learning. The recruits are currently in their 14th week of training, which typically lasts 25 weeks. Recruits live at the New Braintree campus during training, returning home on weekends, state police spokesman David Procopio said. Due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Monday mornings have seen health checks of all returning recruits. No one at the academy has tested positive for COVID-19, Procopio said.

Recruits have been physically distanced from one another, the use of visiting instructors was suspended and academy staff have been consulting with doctors from UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and Baystate Medical Center in Springfield for training recommendations. Recruits have also been placed in smaller platoons and no longer “sound off” in response to drill instructors when they are in close proximity, Procopio said.

Sometimes things just work out in one's favor! Maybe they will start taking laterals...

 

I wonder if you can include an emoji on a to: from: ?

 

This RTT will always be remembered as the "Corona Cut Corner Academy" They'll be lower than merger Capital Cops
HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Shadow boxing and wrestling in MOPP Level 4 have been the staples of the DT program.

Seriously though, if they can bang out certification in 14/weeks.this shows how much extraneous fluff.is.built in. This can set.a.precedent and be a bean counters dream.

 

Everyone has to livestream themselves on zoom while the DI is watching

 

It’s too bad MSP doesn’t take laterals. In the two southern states I’ve worked in, state police and highway patrol have taken laterals. They run full 30+ week paramilitary academies for new recruits just like MSP does, but they also run abbreviated lateral academies. In my current home state, Highway Patrol requires three years of sworn experience to apply for a lateral, then puts you through an 8-12 week long academy. Most cops qualify for the shorter end of that window but some have to go closer to the full 12. For example, deputies have to go through extra crash investigation classes since they don’t work wrecks and leave them to HP. Cops who have worked for certain “company police” (private police agencies) don’t do traffic enforcement since their jurisdiction is limited to private property, where most traffic laws don’t apply. They have to do the full 12 week lateral if they go to HP. The troopers I’ve talked to (including some of the old school guys) have said that the new troopers they’re getting out of lateral classes are just as good as, in fact almost always better than, the fresh recruits out of a 30 week class.

MSP could stand to get some excellent cops if they’d open it up, and it seems it would be more cost effective and efficient to run abbreviated academies for experienced officers instead of only full classes.

 

The only caveat to that would be that a state of emergency had been declared both state and federal level.

 

Does anyone remember a some years back a trainee died from renal failure due to dehydration then after there was a big overhaul in training standards, now they pretty much force feed you water. I have a feeling the next RTT with have complete delousing stations equipped with fire houses, its going to look like BUDS training.

2 Massachusetts State Police Academy trainees test positive for coronavirus
NEW BRAINTREE, Mass. —

The Massachusetts State Police said two trainees at the State Police Academy received positive COVID-19 test results on Tuesday.

The trainees, both of whom have close contacts who recently tested positive for the novel coroanvirus, are the first recruits or staff at the academy to test positive, according to state police officials.
The trainees who tested positive for COVID-19, a man and a woman, were not identified.

Col. Christopher Mason decided to dismiss the remaining 239 class members of the 85th Recruit Training on Tuesday afternoon. While not all trainees -- who were in their 15th week at the academy -- had contact with the two who tested positive, the decision to dismiss them all was made out of an abundance of caution.

Upon their dismissal from the facility today, trainees were instructed to quarantine for 14 days. The department is making arrangements to have all 239 of them tested for coronavirus during that period.

In addition, any academy staff members who believe they had potential contact with the trainees who tested positive will be required to self-report per department guidelines and they will have the option to be tested at one of the priority testing sites.

Last week, the Massachusetts State Police announced that the academy graduation, originally scheduled for late June, would be accelerated by several weeks. The department decided that this week, April 20-24, would be the last week for on-site training at the New Braintree facility before a transition to online learning for one more week ahead of a May 6 graduation.

State police officials said trainees will complete the remainder of this week’s curriculum through online sessions, and will then undergo the previously planned week of further online learning from April 27 through May 1.

The May 6 graduation will be purely functional and will have no ceremonial flourishes or guests, officials said. That graduation date is five weeks earlier than was initially scheduled when the training troop entered the academy in January.

Several weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Police implemented new operational procedures at the academy as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Rodney,
I remember that. I believe it was either 87 or 88, just before I joined the LAPD. If I remember correctly, one recruit died and a number of the others went to the hospital with similar issues. It was a very hot summer and allegedly recruits were made to run around in the hot sun in suits with their bags over their heads without being given water for an extended period of time. (If I remember correctly.)

So far our academy has had three recruits test positive this week but we're still going on. We'll see what happens in the coming week or two.

 

It was the agawam academy


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Officer Timothy Shepard Pittsfield MA.

 

First MPOC, Plymouth Academy. Let's just say water was not something given as much consideration as it was in later classes. We never had a water bottle or canteen on our list of required equipment. I know of at least two trips to the ER for class members. My memories of one of them are a bit... dehydrated.

 

I know a few seasoned officers that referred to the academy as "Dachau".

Nov 04, 1988
Police Cadet Dies Six Weeks After Collapsing in Training
A police recruit who collapsed on Sept. 19 from heat stroke and dehydration on the first day of training died late Wednesday. The lawyer for his family today urged that the cadet's instructors be charged with manslaughter.

The recruit, Timothy M. Shepard, 25 years old, of Pittsfield, lapsed back into a coma two weeks ago five weeks after undergoing a liver transplant at Presbyterian-University Hospital in Pittsburgh. Susan Ruth, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said the hospital withheld word of his death until today at the family's request.

The lawyer, Michael D. Hashim, said the state troopers who were training the cadets should be indicted for involuntary manslaughter because ''they ignored conditions that placed the cadets in harm.''

The Chief State Medical Examiner, Dr. Brian Blackbourne, said that an autopsy in Pennsylvania today showed that Mr. Shepard died from ''a chain of complications'' from the training. He said the immediate cause was blood poisoning with abcesses of the liver and heart and hemorrhaging in the brain.

Investigation into the incident

Investigations began today at a police academy into whether strenuous exercise contributed to the exhaustion and dehydration that hospitalized 16 cadets, including one who was undergoing a liver transplant.

Several of the cadets underwent kidney dialysis treatment, a spokesman for the Bay State Medical Center said. Six remained hospitalized today. Several of the cadets refused to be interviewed today without clearance from Gary Egan, director of the Edward J. Connelly Criminal Justice Training Center in Agawam. Mr. Egan was taking part in the investigation and was unavailable for comment. Critical Condition

Timothy Shepard, 25 years old, a trainee from Pittsfield who collapsed while running on the track Sept. 19, the first day of classes, was flown to Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh and today for a liver transplant.

The operation, which began this evening, was expected to take up to 12 hours, said Mayor Anne Everest Wojtkowski of Pittsfield, who kept in contact with Mr. Shepard's family in Pittsburgh. His condition was listed as critical. The hospital spokesman in Springfield said Mr. Shepard also suffered kidney problems.Mike Purcell of Northampton, who quit the academy after the first day of the same training session, said the training routine was severe. ''I've been through basic training in the Army and it was twice as bad as that,'' Mr. Purcell said. ''The doctors told me that if I had gone back for a second day, I could have suffered permanent kidney damage.''

After Mr. Shepard collapsed, instructors allowed the recruits to drink two small cups of water, Mr. Purcell said. ''Before that, they had lined us up at the bubbler twice during the day and only let us take one cup of water each,'' he said.

Officials at the academy, which is run by the state and trains local and state police officers, urged cadets Wednesday night to seek medical examinations for symptoms including fatigue, nausea and kidney failure. Review of Program Sought

Dr. George Grady, chief state epidemiologist, said his examination last week found ''it's very clear the exercise was stressful,'' although he said further investigation may show other contributing causes.

Jeff Grossman, a spokesman for the state executive office of public safety, said investigators from the Criminal Justice Training Council, which runs the academy, and state police, whose troopers are instructors at the academy, interviewed the class of 47 men and women today and planned to present their findings Tuesday.
In February 1987, a young University of Massachusetts officer shot herself in the head after the first week of the 13-week course.

Ms. Wojtkowski met today with Mr. Egan and Capt. Thomas White of State Police, and said afterward: ''I was completely dissatisfied with their responses. I suspect that the incidents are not isolated.''

Mr. Shepard's brother, Thomas Shepard Jr., said his brother ''was in ''tip-top'' shape and had worked out for at least six months to prepare for the academy. ''He really wanted to be a policeman,'' the brother said. ''He'd been trying to be one for a couple of years.''

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Sept. 26 (AP) - Officials today began investigting the why 16 police cadets were hospitalized last week for exhaustion and dehydration. One of the cadets was undergoing a liver transplant tonight.

Several of the cadets underwent kidney dialysis treatment, said a spokesman for the Bay State Medical Center here. Six remained hospitalized today.

Several of the cadets refused to be interviewed today without clearance from Gary Egan, director of the Edward J. Connelly Criminal Justice Training Center in Agawam. Called Worse Than the ArmyBut Mike Purcell of Northampton, who quit the academy after the first day of the same training session, said the training routine was severe. ''I've been through basic training in the Army and it was twice as bad as that,'' Mr. Purcell said. ''The doctors told me that if I had gone back for a second day, I could have suffered permanent kidney damage.''

Mr. Egan was taking part in the investigation and was unavailable for comment.

 

Best of luck!!

 

OFFICER DOWN MEMORIAL PAGE


Officer Timothy M. Shepard

Pittsfield Police Department, Massachusetts

End of Watch Wednesday, November 2, 1988

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TIMOTHY M. SHEPARD
Officer Timothy Shepard died when he was overcome by heat stroke and dehydration while training during his first day at the former Western Massachusetts Regional Police Academy, at 702 South Westfield Street, in Agawam.

Cadets in the class reported they were pushed to the limits of their endurance with hours of running, push-ups and other exercises that day on just a few small cups of water. Fifteen other cadets of the class of fifty were hospitalized for exhaustion and dehydration. Officer Shepard had undergone a liver transplant, lapsed into a coma, and later died from complications.

Officer Shepard was survived by his expectant wife, brother, and father.

 

Sad.
They made us drink plenty of water after that which was a better lesson on bladder control.
That location is now a Soldier On housing facility.

 

Tragic

 

Lucky break for the Kids in this RTT!!!
That Agawam Academy tragedy is what happened when some misguided fools think they needed to make like it's Paris Island or the French Foreign Legion. So many persons affected and so unnecessary.

 

Agreed. Nothing wrong with a paramilitary academy, I think it helps instill discipline and creates better officers. However, if you have prior military in the calls who say that it’s much harder than basic, and you have people passing out and even dying of dehydration, something seriously needs re-evaluation.

 

You absolutely NOT wrong, but as most of us know, what you learn in the academy is only about 1/2 of reality.

 

Even SSPO was tough, but they treat you with respect and love..............
.