Massachusetts State Police using new technology in cruisers that sends alerts to drivers
By the time you see a Massachusetts State Police cruiser with its lights and sirens on, your car may have already alerted you to the road hazard ahead.
The I-Team has learned the department installed new technology in 233 of its cruisers that is designed to prevent collisions.
Transponders installed in cruisers
HAAS Alert makes the system called Safety Cloud. It works through transponders installed in the cruisers that are activated when a trooper turns on the lights and sirens.
The system then sends out a digital alert to drivers in the area through the car's infotainment system or a navigation app.
Brock Aun is with HAAS Alert. He tells the I-Team, "if you are using an app like Waze, you're going to get an alert from HAAS the same way you get other alerts. And that alert pops up 30 seconds before you reach that hazard on the road either on your phone or in the infotainment screen."
The company says the system saves lives.
Fatal Massachusetts crashes
Massachusetts data shows in 2024, there were 133,333 crashes and 355 were fatal. So far in the first three months of 2025, there have been 23,241 collisions 50 involved fatalities.
In some of those collisions, drivers crashed into police cruisers. State Police tell the I-Team it bought Safety Cloud in February, paying $135,000 for the equipment, installation and service.
The money came through a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The department also says it has been used to alert more than 200,000 motorists.
"Drivers are more distracted than ever before," Brock Aun said. "The purpose of this is to take those lights and sirens that we are used to seeing to warn us, and to extend the reach of those lights and sirens into the vehicle to warn people that they're coming up on a hazard that they might not expect, so they are more likely to slow down and move over."
HASS Alert, the company that makes Safety Cloud, says Massachusetts State Police is not the only agency using the system, telling the I-Team there are nearly 100 police, fire, EMS and tow companies in the state that also have the technology.
