Massachusetts Statutes

Section 91. In a city in which the city council accepts this section, or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, constables shall be appointed by the mayor for terms not exceeding three years. The mayor may, with the consent of the board of aldermen, remove a const…

Section 91A. The selectmen in any town may from time to time appoint, for terms not exceeding three years, as many constables as they deem necessary.

Section 91B. Constables shall not be appointed by mayors or selectmen under section ninety-one or ninety-one A except as hereinafter provided. A person desiring to be appointed as aforesaid shall make a written application therefor to the appointing authority stating his reasons …

Section 92. A constable who has given bond to the town in a sum of not less than one thousand dollars, with sureties approved by the selectmen, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties in the service of all civil processes committed to him, and has filed the same, w…

Section 93. The town clerk shall note upon every bond given by a constable the time of filing. Any person injured by a breach of the condition thereof may, at his own expense, sue thereon in the name of the town, and the proceedings shall be the same as in an action by a creditor…

Section 94. Constables may serve the writs and processes described in section ninety-two and warrants and processes in criminal cases, although their town, parish, religious society or district is a party or interested. They shall have the powers of sheriffs to require aid in the…

Section 95. A constable, in the execution of a warrant or writ directed to him, may convey prisoners and property in his custody under such process beyond the limits of his town, either to the justice who issued it or to the jail or house of correction of his county. If a warrant…

Section 95A. Constables appointed under sections 91, 91A, and 91B or otherwise elected to serve as constables in a city or town shall periodically pay the city or town in which the constable is appointed or elected 25 per cent of all fees the constable collects for the service of…

Section 95B. Each constable shall annually on or before April 15 file with the city or town treasurer an account signed under the penalties of perjury of all fees and money received by him under section 8 of chapter 262 for the service of civil process. Such account shall include…

Section 96. In any town in which such appointments are not subject to chapter thirty-one, they shall be made annually or for a term of years not exceeding three years, as the selectmen shall determine, and the selectmen may remove such officers for cause at any time during such a…

Section 96A. No person who has been convicted of any felony or whose name is listed in the national decertification index or the database of decertified law enforcement officers maintained by the Massachusetts peace officer standards and training commission pursuant to chapter 6E…

Section 96B. Every person who receives an appointment to a position on a full-time basis in which he will exercise police powers in the police department of any city or town, shall, prior to exercising police powers, be assigned to and satisfactorily complete a prescribed course …

Section 97. In towns which accept this section or have accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws there shall be a police department established under the direction of the selectmen, who shall appoint a chief of police and such other police officers as they deem necessary,…

Section 97A. In any town which accepts this section there shall be a police department established by the selectmen, and such department shall be under the supervision of an officer to be known as the chief of police. The selectmen of any such town shall appoint a chief of police…

Section 97B. There shall be within the police department of every city and town, or grouping of cities and towns with the approval of the secretary of the executive office of public safety, a rape reporting and prosecution unit which shall be designed to improve the quality of ra…

Section 97C. Each rape reporting and prosecution unit shall, in addition to the services provided in section ninety-seven B, establish a special telephone exchange for the reporting of rape which may be utilized at any hour of day or night and shall widely publicize this number a…

Section 97D. All reports of rape and sexual assault or attempts to commit such offenses, all reports of abuse perpetrated by family or household members, as defined in section 1 of chapter 209A, and all communications between police officers and victims of such offenses or abuse …

Section 97E. In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section, the chief of police may, without loss of pay or vacation time, attend the annual convention of the New England Association of Chiefs of Police and the annual convention of the International Association…

Section 97F. No city or town shall require a member of its police department, or other employee with police powers, to perform the duties of a firefighter during his tour of duty; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall prohibit any such member from serving as a cal…

Section 98. The chief and other police officers of all cities and towns shall have all the powers and duties of constables except serving and executing civil process. They shall suppress and prevent all disturbances and disorder. They may carry within the commonwealth such weapon…

Section 98A. A police officer of a city or town who is empowered to make arrests within a city or town may, on fresh and continued pursuit, exercise such authority in any other city or town for any offence committed in his presence within his jurisdiction for which he would have …

Section 98B. In every city or town which has a population of forty thousand or more and which accepts the provisions of this section there shall be at all times a minimum of one police officer on foot patrol for every ten thousand inhabitants or major portion thereof. ''On foot p…

Section 98C. In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section no uniformed police officer, and no other uniformed person empowered to make arrests, employed by such city or town shall be required to wear a badge, tag or label of any kind which identifies him by na…

Section 98D. Each city or town shall issue to every full-time police officer employed by it an identification card bearing the officer's photograph and identifying information. The secretary of public safety and security may adopt regulations relative to the form, content and iss…

Section 98E. No person or persons shall solicit the public in any manner or form using the word ''police'' or ''firefighter'' or any derivative thereof without using the name or names of the city or town police or firefighters organization sponsoring such solicitation.

Section 98F. Each police department and each college or university to which officers have been appointed pursuant to section 63 of chapter 22C shall make, keep and maintain a daily log, written in a form that can be easily understood, recording, in chronological order, all respon…

Section 98G. Any city, town or district police department which requires an investigating police officer to make a report concerning an incident, offense or alleged offense investigated, or any arrest made, on a form provided by the department, shall include on said form a space …

Section 98H. An agreement by a law enforcement agency, as defined in section 1 of chapter 6E, to settle a complaint of professional misconduct by a law enforcement officer, as defined in said section 1 of said chapter 6E, shall not include a nondisclosure, non-disparagement or ot…

Section 99. The mayor, selectmen, chief of police, or person however designated having the duties of a chief of police, or, in the absence of the chief of police, or person however designated having the duties of a chief of police, the commanding officer, may upon the request of …

Section 99A. Any member of the regular police or fire department and fire alarm division of a city or town appointed subsequent to August first, nineteen hundred and seventy-eight shall reside within fifteen miles of the limits of said city or town. Said distance shall be measure…

Section 99B. The purpose of this and the nine following sections, which shall be designated and may be known as ''The regional police district law'', is to permit two or more contiguous towns to establish a regional police district and organize a common police department to serve…

Section 99C. Any group of contiguous towns may, by vote of their respective registered voters, vote to establish a regional police district, the area of jurisdiction of which shall be the combined corporate limits of the member towns.

Section 99D. In towns using official ballots at town elections, acceptance of the provisions of the regional police district law shall be by vote in answer to the following questions to be placed on the official ballot at an annual town election as hereinafter provided, and in to…

Section 99E. A regional police district established under section ninety-nine D shall be a body politic and corporate with all the powers and duties conferred by law upon police departments, and with the following additional powers and duties: (a) To adopt a name and a corporate …

Section 99F. The powers, duties and liabilities of a regional police district shall be vested in and exercised by a regional police district commission organized by the boards of selectmen of the member towns. Each said board shall appoint two members of the commission within thr…

Section 99G. The regional police district commission shall annually determine the amounts necessary to be raised to maintain and operate the district police during the ensuing calendar year, and the amounts required for payment of debt and interest incurred by the district which …

Section 99H. The director of accounts in the department of revenue shall annually cause an audit to be made of the accounts of the regional police district commission, and for this purpose he, and his duly accredited agents, shall have access to all necessary papers, books and re…

Section 99I. Said commission shall, annually not later than December first, estimate the amount of money required to pay the costs and expenses of the district for the following year and shall fix and determine the proportion of such costs and expenses to be paid by the member to…

Section 99J. Each regional police district commission shall organize a regional district police department, and such department shall begin operations and otherwise take effect on January first following acceptance of the provisions of the regional police district law. Each regio…

Section 99K. In towns using official ballots at town elections, revocation of the provisions of the regional police district law shall be by vote in answer to a question placed on the official ballot at an annual town election as hereinafter provided, and in towns not using offic…

Section 1. The seaward boundary of cities and towns bordering on the open sea shall coincide with the marine boundary of the commonwealth. The boundary lines in tide water between adjacent coastal municipalities, as located and defined by the board of harbor and land commissioner…

Section 10. No person, except as hereinafter provided, shall remove, obliterate or cover up any monument or mark designating a boundary line of a town. The county commissioners of the county where any such monument or mark is wholly or partly situated may grant to any person maki…

Section 11. Whoever violates any provision of the preceding section, or wilfully or maliciously disturbs or injures the monuments or marks aforesaid, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars or by imprisonment for not more than six months.

Section 12. If the true boundary between two or more adjacent counties, cities, towns or districts is doubtful or in dispute, the land court may determine the location thereof upon the petition of one or more of such counties, cities, towns and districts and after such notice to …

Section 2. The boundary markers of every town shall be located, the marks thereon renewed, and the year located marked upon the face thereof which bears the letter of the town locating its boundary, once every five years, by at least two of the selectmen of the town or by two sub…