Prior to being known as the Massachusetts State Police, the department was known as the Special District Police of Massachusetts from 1879 to 1919. Police, Registry of Motor Vehicles Police, and Capitol Police merged with this department to form the new Department of State Police in 1992. This is the former statewide police department for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which was founded in 1865 the M.D.C.

Officers of the Municipal Protective Services still hold arrest powers as Special Police Officers but the vast majority of law enforcement activity previously handled by the Boston Municipal Police is now the responsibility of the Boston Police Department.ĭepartment of Public Safety - Division of State Police The department was dissolved on Januand replaced by the Boston Municipal Protective Services, an unarmed security force. However, the officers of the department were primarily tasked with patrol of city buildings and public property as well as responding to security alarms. The Boston Municipal Police were founded in 1979 and had full city-wide police powers in the City of Boston as Special Police Officers.

All officers of the three departments became Massachusetts State Troopers at the time of the merger without needing to attend the Massachusetts State Police Academy. Three of the following defunct Commonwealth of Massachusetts police agencies (Registry of Motor Vehicles Division of Law Enforcement, Massachusetts Capitol Police, Metropolitan District Commission Police) were merged in 1992 by Chapter 412 of the Massachusetts Acts of 1991 along with the former Department of Public Safety - Division of State Police to form the current Department of State Police.

Cheltenham township auxiliary police