The Massachusetts State Police have launched an internal investigation into unauthorized training exercises that injured nearly two dozen recruits.
The state police confirmed nearly two dozen recruits suffered scrapes and blisters after being forced to crawl across hot pavement in two separate incidents earlier this month.
According to state police, “trainees were required to perform a physical exercise (bear crawls) that was not authorized as part of the training curriculum, added no value to the training, and contradicted the expectations that MSP Command Staff explicitly conveyed to Academy staff.”
A spokesman for the troopers says it’s not clear if the exercises were meant to be punishment or just training that went too far.
State police said they’ve already taken action including removing and reassigning the two drill instructors involved, opening an internal investigation to see if others may have some responsibility and removed and replaced the academy’s leader and second in command.
The state police also opened an investigation, which is ongoing, replaced the academy commandant and executive officer responsible for academy oversight, and issued a directive reiterating that unauthorized exercises and training activities are prohibited.
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