Peabody Police using new Massachusetts Police ID program->
The Peabody Police Department is proud to announce our adoption of the new, secure, standardized Massachusetts Police ID card.
Last Friday the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs unveiled a new credential being carried by the police officers of Massachusetts. The new ID cards are of uniform design and utilize features that thwart tampering and counterfeiting. To our knowledge, Massachusetts is the first state in the U.S. to implement a statewide system of secure police credentials.
This was a joint project between the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and the Massachusetts major City Chiefs. The Wellesley and Peabody Police Departments were integral in driving the project forward over the past few years.
Chief Champagne of Peabody was an early supporter of this program and played a large part in its promotion and adoption.
Deputy Chief Bill Brooks of Wellesley served as the project manager, representing the Mass Chiefs of Police Association. Deputy Chief Brooks was assisted throughout the project by Peabody Detective Peter Olson.
Massachusetts law requires that every city and town issue identification cards to its full-time police officers, who are required to carry the card and exhibit it upon lawful request. However, there has never before been a standard for the design of the card leaving police departments to come up with their own. Additionally, most police ID cards had no security elements so counterfeit cards could conceivably be made using off-the-shelf printers and software.
The lack of uniform, secure credentials posed several security and public safety problems. Security personnel at courthouses and other protected buildings had no streamlined way to validate identification shown by police officers carrying firearms, and citizens had no way of authenticating whether a person stopping them or demanding to be let into their home was actually a police officer. It is not uncommon for people to commit crimes by posing as police officers
