The governor (name not specified) on Thursday said she has directed Colonel Noble of the Massachusetts State Police to deploy state resources to help local police identify, apprehend and hold people who organize illegal car meetups and street drag racing accountable.

"Do not engage in that behavior," the governor said, adding that "anyone who engages in that conduct will be found and will be held accountable to the furthest extent of the law." She said the state will use fusion-center monitoring and other tools to track online coordination of meetups and instructed residents who see online posts about gatherings to "see something, say something, report it to local police, call 911."

The governor cited incidents over the weekend in Fall River, Boston and Brockton and said one Fall River meetup included "a couple [of] hundred people" and temporarily blocked an ambulance, forcing it to "go back up onto the highway and around." She described the gatherings as a threat to public safety and to residents' quality of life.

The governor said she had convened roundtables with law enforcement across the state and specifically asked Colonel Noble to work operationally with local chiefs and departments, but declined to describe operational tactics because they are law enforcement matters. "I'm not gonna talk about what those operations look like because this is a law enforcement matter," she said.

Asked about the possibility of the National Guard being deployed to respond to such incidents, the governor said there was no need for Guard activation in Massachusetts and that using the Guard against civilians would undermine its mission. "The guard needs to be used though in a way that is consistent with its mission," she said, and called out instances elsewhere where she said governors had activated Guard units inappropriately. She added that activating Guard members for domestic crowd control removes people from their civilian jobs and families.

The governor also criticized a federal funding cut, saying "Donald Trump cut $7,000,000 in funding in Massachusetts for public safety programming" and said the state would continue prevention and community programs as part of a broader strategy that includes both enforcement and violence-prevention work.

Reporters pressed for additional details about operational planning and legal steps. The governor reiterated that she had asked the state police colonel to coordinate operationally and that further legal questions could be addressed by the attorney general's office. There were no votes or formal policy changes recorded at the briefing; the state action announced was a direction to law enforcement rather than a legislative or regulatory decision.

The governor said the state will continue to work with local departments to prevent similar meetups and emphasized that those who travel into Massachusetts to stage drag races are not welcome. "If you do it, we're gonna find you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law," she said.