Nov 9, 2025
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Add us on GoogleFormer Massachusetts State Police (MSP) Lieutenant Daniel Griffin managed to live two very different lives for years.
To his children’s private school, he was a regular state trooper doing his best to get by, even applying for financial aid to cover tuition.
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What the school didn’t know was that Griffin also owned a private security business, Knight Protection Services, which generated millions in revenue between 2012 and 2019. Much of that money was never reported to the IRS.
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As if that weren’t enough, Griffin was later caught running a fraudulent overtime scheme, conspiring to steal thousands of dollars from federally funded traffic-safety grants by showing up late and leaving early.
For those efforts to live as an unethical version of Batman’s alter ego, Griffin was sentenced last year to 5 years in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release and hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution. (1).
Far-reaching consequences
The fallout from Griffin’s case helped push MSP to install GPS trackers in all patrol vehicles back in 2019. The system cost taxpayers millions — with an initial installation of $225,000 and monthly operating costs of about $70,000.
So it came as a shock when Boston 25 News revealed that the department had equipped hundreds of cruisers with GPS “kill switches” — devices that let troopers disable tracking entirely.
Investigative reporter Ted Daniel uncovered the feature while reviewing disciplinary files on former State Police detective Michael Proctor.
According to Boston 25, Proctor was being investigated for an overtime shift he claimed to spend on a “cold case” trip to Cape Cod with Canton Police detective Kevin Albert. Records show the two stopped for beers at Treehouse Brewery in Sandwich, then had dinner and more drinks in Hanover on the way back.
The next day, Albert texted Proctor a photo of two drinks, writing, “It’s bad!!! I was hungover for sure today!!!,” according to a Canton Police report. Albert later said he was joking.
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Public records tell a different story
A public records request showed Proctor’s unmarked cruiser moved for just eight seconds that day. The rest of his travels weren’t recorded because his GPS tracker had been shut off.
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So how did a detective manage to disable his own tracking device? It wasn’t movie-level espionage. It was as easy as flipping a switch, one that had been installed in 418 state police vehicles and that Proctor was authorized to use.
The department told Boston 25 that district attorneys had raised concerns about GPS data exposing investigators’ locations during sensitive cases. The kill switches were added to protect witnesses, victims and informants.
But as early as 2021, internal reports warned the switches could also be abused to conceal misconduct. This summer, MSP adopted new rules requiring written authorization and documentation whenever a commander allows GPS to be disabled.
Accountability can’t be optional
No taxpayer wants to see public money wasted — especially in an era of rising costs and economic anxiety. The Griffin scandal showed what happens when oversight fails. The GPS loophole proved that even expensive accountability tech can’t guarantee transparency if the people using it can simply turn it off.
Credit goes to Boston 25 News for digging into the issue and reminding Massachusetts taxpayers that true accountability can’t come with an off switch.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
United States Attorney's Office (1); Boston 25 News (2); ProofPoint (3
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Mike Funderburk is the general manager of Moneywise.
