FRAMINGHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - The Massachusetts State Police announced it is making major changes to its training academy in the wake of the death of a state police recruit in 2024 that led to criminal charges against four people who worked at the academy.
On September 13, 2024, 25-year-old Enrique Delgado-Garcia died from injuries he sustained while training to become a Massachusetts State Police trooper. He was repeatedly punched in the head by another recruit during boxing training at the State Police Academy in New Braintree. His autopsy revealed he died of multiple blunt force trauma to the head, and a neck fracture, according to attorneys for his family.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police underwent a comprehensive study of the training procedures and released a 110-page report following his death. The study said the academy complied with state requirements, but failed in many other aspects.
Investigators found that the stress training environment was “overwhelmingly punitive” at the facility in New Braintree, leading to “uneccessary psychological stress, self-doubt, and disengagement among recruits.”
The report also said that in 2023, 50 percent of Fall recruits dropped out.
Massachusetts State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble said over the next five years, he is committed to implementing 103 recommendations listed in the study.
“This review is going to be an important foundation, and it’s going to provide a road map for how we train future troopers,” Noble said. “I renew our committment to honoring his [Delgao-Garcia’s] life, his service, and we will honor that through meaningful action.”
Noble, who boxed when he trained to be a trooper three decades ago, said there will now be no more boxing during cadet training, and he is considering replacing boxing with jiu jitsu.
“We will permanently end boxing and any head strike activities,” Noble said.
The report also recommends that traditional drill instructor-style training should transition to a coaching-based model without lowering standards.
Though two recruiting classes have graduated since Delgado-Garcia’s death, Noble said he has decided to pause training for this summer’s class of recruits as changes continue to be implemented, including the hiring of a civilian to lead training at the academy alongside the commandant, who is a commissioned trooper.
Noble said he will accept recommendations that an independent board be appointed to monitor progress on an ongoing basis.
“It’s a proper recommendation to ensure that, as a public agency, that I as the colonel, that we as a department, are held accountable. And that’s the way it should be,” he said. “We will never waiver and we will continue to reinforce a safety first culture.”
Noble hopes the new troopers can be trained once again starting this Fall, but that’s only if the nearly two dozen action items that he’s highlighted in this report are addressed by then.
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