The Sean Collier Memorial Fund, Lowell Police and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation have partnered to provide children with free swimming lessons in Lowell, reports Todd Kazakiewich for WCVB. The program “aims to help up to 75 Massachusetts children learn to swim this month,” reports Kazakiewich.
NBC Boston highlights the work of the Officer Sean A. Collier Memorial Fund, an organization set up in his memory by Officer Collier’s family that raises “funds to help young athletes and the families of fallen officers,” reports Monica Madeja. “I think he’d be thrilled,” says retired MIT Police Sgt. Rich Sullivan, who was Collier’s boss at the department and helps run the fund. “[Sean] was big into donating and giving back to people, and I think he’d be beside himself to see what we’ve done for him.”
Graduate students at MIT rescued a dog that was abandoned from a stolen vehicle, reports Kate Armanini The Boston Globe. “The students used the dog’s tags to contact the owner, who was ‘appreciative and emotional’ to be reunited with the dog,” writes Armanini.
Graduate students at MIT rescued a dog that was abandoned from a stolen vehicle, reports Kate Armanini The Boston Globe. “The students used the dog’s tags to contact the owner, who was ‘appreciative and emotional’ to be reunited with the dog,” writes Armanini.
NECN spotlights how a group of MIT Sloan students jumped into action to aid a dog who was dumped out of a car. The dog, Millie, “was reunited with her grateful owner, who came to MIT to meet police and the students.”
MIT graduate students rescued and reunited a stolen dog with its owner after it was abandoned following a carjacking, reports Timothy Nazzaro for Boston 25. “After recovering the dog, the MIT students contacted the dog’s owner using the information on the pooch’s collar tags,” writes Nazzaro. “The owner was reunited with ‘Millie,’ the pup, at MIT and was very grateful to the students who stepped in to save her."
Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini writes for The Atlantic about the dangers posed by government agencies adopting the use of facial recognition technology. “No biometric technologies should be adopted by the government to police access to services or benefits,” writes Buolamwini, “certainly not without cautious consideration of the dangers they pose, due diligence in outside testing, and the consent of those exposed to potential abuse, data exploitation, and other harms that affect us all.”
GBH’s Basic Black host Callie Crossley speaks with Lecturer Malia Lazu,about how issues surrounding Covid-19, voting rights, economic downturn, police brutality, education, climate change and politics will impact communities of color in the coming year. “What I see is a democracy fighting itself,” says Lazu. "People in power, republicans or democrats, being bought into the idea of democracy more than the people in the democracy.”
WHDH reporter Aisha Mbowe spotlights how town leaders in Wilmington, Massachusetts “voted unanimously to declare Jan. 3 Sean Collier Day in honor of the MIT police officer who was killed by the Tsarnaev brothers days after the bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.”
Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear spotlights research specialist Kathy Cormier’s dedication to tending a flower planter at the Collier Memorial. “Here’s something that’s empty that I can fill, and make myself feel better and make other people — hopefully — feel better,” says Cormier. MIT Chief of Police John DiFava says, “what she is doing is just so amazing. I just think it’s wonderful and it’s so illustrative of the way we have been treated here.”
John DiFava, chief of the MIT Police, speaks with WCVB-TV about 9/11, when he was Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police. "You know, they say that there's always a silver lining,” says DiFava. “There was no silver lining to that. 9/11 had no silver lining.”
A scholarship established in memory of MIT police officer Sean Collier will be awarded for the first time on April 19 at Collier’s alma mater, Salem State. Salem State Prof. Emeritus Ed LeClair tells Emily Sweeney of The Boston Globe that Collier was “an inspirational leader,” and remembers him as “an exceptionally good community police officer.”
The last leg of the “Tour De Force” bike ride from New York to Boston, which was held in honor of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was named for Officer Sean Collier, Karyn Regal reports for CBS Boston. MIT Police Officer Dusty Miller called the ride a “great tribute” to Collier.
Kelsey D. Atherton writes for Popular Science about Explorer, a camera ball designed by MIT alumnus Francisco Aguilar that can be used by first responders to survey an area. “Rescue workers could drop Explorers into nooks and crannies that are otherwise inaccessible for larger tools."
In an article for the Cambridge Chronicle, Sara Feijo writes about the new memorial MIT dedicated in honor of Officer Sean Collier. The memorial’s design was “inspired by the gesture of an open hand to reflect the notion of what it means to be ‘Collier Strong.’”