The Somerville Auxiliary Police Department was a

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

police force The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

until it was disbanded in 2018. It operated through the police department of

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area ...

. The police chief was Henry Wagner. The department was considered one of the most active volunteer law enforcement organizations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was heavily utilized in functions including cruiser patrols, traffic control, crowd control, motor vehicle accidents, fires, parades, emergency management situations, and mutual aid such as the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ...

. Somerville resident

Sean Collier The Boston Marathon bombing was a domestic terrorist attack that took place during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Two terrorists, brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, w ...

was a former member of the Somerville Auxiliary Police Department and held the rank of sergeant. Collier was murdered in 2013 while serving as a

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

with the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Department The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Department (MIT Police, formerly MIT Campus Patrol) is the police agency charged with providing law enforcement to the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The 168-acre (68.0 ha) c ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://somervilleauxpd.org/ Somerville, Massachusetts Auxiliary police units Municipal police departments of Massachusetts