Colonel McGovern Announces Trooper Safety Study,
Increased Traffic Enforcement
On Thursday, July 22, Colonel Marian J. McGovern, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, joined with Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray and other federal and state officials to announce a State Police initiative to research trooper safety practices and procedures. Colonel McGovern also announced "Operation Lightning," a traffic enforcement initiative that is rolling extra patrols throughout the state on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the summer. Also taking part in the news conference at General Headquarters were representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, AAA of Southern New England, and the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts. The news conference was held in the wake of a series of incidents that saw five troopers struck and injured by motor vehicles - one of them, Sgt. Douglas Weddleton, fatally - in a five-week period. At the news conference, the Department displayed the damaged cruiser of Trooper Corey Rose, who was struck by an accused drunk driver during a traffic stop in Taunton early on the morning of July 18. Colonel McGovern's remarks to the media follow.
Colonel McGovern speaks in front of Cruiser 408, which was struck by an accused drunk driver, causing injuries to Trooper Corey Rose. With her is Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray.
REMARKS OF COLONEL MARIAN J. McGOVERN
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thank you Lieutenant Governor Murray. On the behalf of the Massachusetts State Police, I would like to thank the Patrick-Murray Administration for their support of law enforcement and this Department in our mission to protect the people who live, work, travel or raise their families in Massachusetts.
To the media here today, I thank you for helping us raise awareness of the safety issues we're facing and for your interest in the steps we're taking to make our highways safer. I also thank you for your coverage in recent weeks of the troopers who have been struck by vehicles in the line of duty. Your reporting has shone a light on the very dangerous natures of a state trooper's job.
Let me begin by, again, noting the full measure of sacrifice made by Sgt. Douglas Weddleton. Be assured that this Department will never forget the ultimate cost of his service to the public, or the irreparable loss suffered by his wife, four sons and parents.
Lt. Gov. Murray mentioned Trooper Corey Rose, the most recent trooper struck in the line of duty. You see the result of that crash behind me. Every member of this Department embraces traffic enforcement as one of the core missions of the State Police. When we sign up for this job, we know that we will be working on the shoulder of busy highways, with cars speeding by, inches away. We accept this because it is necessary for the protection of the public we serve and the very essence of our core mission.
But that makes it no less acceptable when any trooper, officer, an emergency worker or a member of the public is struck and injured - or worse - by a motorist. About half of the 87 police officers killed in the line of duty across the country thus far this year were killed by motor vehicles or in crashes. Here in the Massachusetts State Police, so far this year we have had 10 cruisers struck by drunk drivers. That puts us on pace to reach last year's total of 20 cruisers hit by impaired drivers.
It is my responsibility as commander of this department to do everything I can to minimize the risks our troopers face on our highways. Toward that end, we have begun researching ways to increase trooper safety on traffic stops. While I firmly believe that our policies and procedures are among the best in the nation, we would be remiss if we did not explore best practices currently in use by other departments around the country. Specifically, we are researching such topics as procedures for approaching stopped cars, positioning of cruisers and troopers, types and effects of emergency lighting systems, and personal equipment.
We will conduct an emergency lighting study, in which we will examine and evaluate the visibility of a cruiser and trooper under normal emergency lighting conditions when positioned at a routine traffic stop. Currently, there is no national standard that governs lighting requirements for law enforcement emergency vehicles. Through our study, which we will conduct on a state highway during early morning hours, we hope to identify and assess potential improvements to vehicle equipment and patrol procedure practices.
Additionally, through our Safety Committee, we have obtained material, including videos and studies, from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and other law enforcement agencies, about best practices when approaching a vehicle on the highway.
We are doing this not because our troopers who were struck did anything wrong or failed to follow procedure. Quite to the contrary, our reviews show that the troopers struck recently did everything properly and took precautions to keep themselves as safe as they possibly could.
Still, as a progressive department, we will make sure we are doing all we can in terms of procedure, training and technology to decrease the odds that troopers will be hurt, and increase the likelihood of a safe motor vehicle stop. Once this process is completed, we will determine whether we wish to make any changes to procedures and equipment, and if so, incorporate them into our policies and training.
I wish to make one other point about our equipment. When you look at Trooper Rose's cruiser afterward, you will note that as bad as the damage was, the passenger compartment held up pretty well. That is testimony to the superb engineering of the specialized police interceptor models that we utilize.
Another important component of our operational plan is increased enforcement. Let me make very clear that while we are concerned about trooper safety, we are equally concerned about the safety of the public who travel our roadways every day, and we are dedicated to doing all we can to make the highways safer for them.
So far this year, preliminary statistics reveal that there have been 145 deaths on Massachusetts roads. At this point last year, there were 184 roadway deaths in the state. That is trending in the right direction, but by no means are we satisfied with that. Any injury or loss of life on a roadway caused by impairment, aggression, speeding, negligence or distraction is unacceptable, and any driver who engages in these unsafe behaviors is put on notice - we are targeting you.
Every day and night, in every corner of the state, we patrol our state's highways. For the last two weeks, we have supplemented those efforts with extra patrols, an initiative we have named Operation Lightning. Under Operation Lightning, we are rolling extra patrols every Friday and Saturday night - a total of four additional patrols in each one of our five geographic Troops, each night of the operation.
During the last two weekends, the extra Operation Lightning patrols arrested 24 drunk drivers and made 14 additional arrests on other charges. The extra patrols issued criminal summonses to 15 other drivers, and issued 263 citations for motor vehicle violations. Today I am announcing that we will continue to run Operation Lightning every weekend for the duration of the summer. This is a priority for this Department.
Additionally, we regularly run traffic enforcement campaigns funded by the National Highway Transportation Administration, with the grants administered through the state Office of Public Safety and Security.
This week, we are launching one of our "Click it or Ticket" mobilizations, which will roll another 460 additional four-hour patrols across the state through July 31. Next month, we will utilize another federal grant for a "Drunk Driving - Over the Limit - Under Arrest" campaign, which will provide a similar number of extra patrols leading up to Labor Day.
In addition, we run sobriety checkpoints on state roads throughout the state. We will be running two or three checkpoints most every weekend for the remainder of the year. Last weekend, checkpoints in Quincy and Auburn resulted in arrests of another 12 drunk drivers. The prior weekend's checkpoints resulted in 16 OUI arrests in Springfield and Haverhill.
Finally, I want to touch upon public awareness of the problems occurring on our roadways. Every day, our troopers deal with drunk, erratic, aggressive, negligent and distracted drivers.
Just this past weekend, on the same morning that Trooper Rose was hit, a young woman was killed on Route 495 in Haverhill when - according to preliminary evidence - she lost control after either texting or looking at her cell phone. That very same morning, in Worcester, another young woman for some reason ended up going the wrong way, against the traffic, on Route 190. She drove into a pickup truck occupied by two young men. All three people were killed. We are still investigating why the young woman ended up on the wrong side of the highway.
We are grateful to the media for helping us spread this message. The public needs to be aware of the consequences of impaired and distracted driving, and of speeding, and being too aggressive. If people choose to drive this way, they may rest assured that the Massachusetts State Police will be looking for them.
Thank you.