Drax, the police department’s recently retired K-9, has died after battling an aggressive brain tumor for the last several weeks, police announced Monday.

Mansfield residents Sandra Doherty and her friend Marcia Hayes had just finished dinner outside on the patio of Skipjack’s Restaurant at Patriot Place on a recent Saturday evening, but they were in no rush to go.

With calls to defund law enforcement continuing to resound here in Massachusetts and elsewhere, first-year Police Chief Michael Grace this week asserted that Foxboro is ahead of the curve when it comes to efforts at improving transparency, accountability and police-community relations.