Police vehicle in fatal Marshfield crash was military surplus repurposed for emergencies, chief says
A Marshfield police vehicle involved in a fatal collision with an[1] SUV on Monday was a surplus military equipment that the department acquired from the federal government in 2020, Police Chief Phillip A. Tavares said Wednesday.
The officer involved in the crash was driving a mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP, which contains no weapons and has been repurposed for life-saving missions in emergency situations, Tavares said.
The crash occurred when Michelle Freestone, 79, of Marshfield, turned her SUV in front of the MRAP and the vehicles collided, the Plymouth district attorney’s office said.
Freestone was later pronounced dead at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, the DA’s office said. The officer was not injured.
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The Suffolk district attorney’s office has taken over the investigation to avoid a potential conflict of interest, Tavares said.
A spokesperson for Suffolk district attorney Kevin Hayden had no further comment.
At the time of the crash, the MRAP was traveling a few miles down one road from police headquarters to a public works facility for routine maintenance in preparation for Wednesday’s rainstorm.
“It is capable of going through rough terrain, deep salt water, blizzards,” Tavares said. “It has the ability to move trees off the roads.”
Such a vehicle can be valuable during extreme weather, such as flooding that traps residents in their homes, he said.
“This is a piece of equipment that has been repurposed to save lives, not take them,” Tavares said. “This is a terrible, unfortunate tragedy.”
The MRAP is the police department’s only armored vehicle, Tavares said. The department has one other military surplus vehicle currently in use, with an open back that allows it to transport large numbers of people in an emergency, he said.
The department also has Humvees that it has used during previous storms, but they are “now old and rotted and not being used,” he said.
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The use of military surplus vehicles by police sparked public debate several years back, with some observers expressing concern over what they characterized as “the militarization of police,” Tavares said. But he disagrees.
“It’s the modernization of police,” he said. “We adapt and learn from things that have happened in the past in an effort to better save lives.”
Jeremy C.
Fox can be reached at [email protected][2].
Follow him @jeremycfox[3].
References
- ^ a fatal collision with an (www.bostonglobe.com)
- ^ [email protected] (www.bostonglobe.com)
- ^ @jeremycfox (www.twitter.com)