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North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council

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NEMLEC officers on motorcycles clear streets of pedestrians at the conclusion of the annual tree lighting ceremony in Concord, Massachusetts, in 2022

The Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council or "NEMLEC" is a non-profit consortium made up of 63 police departments in Middlesex, Essex and Suffolk County and 2 County Sheriff's Departments. Member agencies participate by sharing resources and personnel, allowing member agencies to provide supplemental services to citizens in the 925 square miles they serve. NEMLEC coordinates the mutual aid between agencies in accordance with M.G.L. Section 40, Paragraph 8G and 4J. The organization is headquartered at 314 Main Street, Suite 205 in Wilmington, Massachusetts.[1] In 2014 its president was Michael Begonis, the chief of the Wilmington Police Department.[1] By the next year, press reports indicated the president was John Fisher, chief of the Carlisle Police Department.[2]

Specialized services offered by NEMLEC include:

  • RRT/SWAT - Regional Response Team and SWAT Team (which includes a Crisis Negotiation Team) and K-9 Unit trained in search & rescue.
  • Motor Unit - Provides escorts, traffic safety and crowd control
  • CISM Team - Critical Incident Stress Management Team
  • STARS - The School Threat Assessment and Response Team is made up of police officers and licensed clinicians who respond to critical incidents at schools as well as provide threat assessments to member districts
  • IMT - The Incident Management Team provides support to all NEMLEC units in terms of communications and coordinates same and operational plans for large scale events

As a private corporation, NEMLEC claimed in 2014 that it was able to keep its internal organization and operations out of the public's view. It would not respond to open records requests. Other such organizations in the state, such as the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council, claimed the same.[3][4][5] As a result of a lawsuit by the local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, in 2015 it changed policy and released documents requested by the public.[6] Days later the Washington Post published an article based on the documents describing an "excessive" use of SWAT teams for routine police matters.[7]

Agencies that belong to NEMLEC include:[8]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Official web site". NEMLEC: The Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council. NEMLEC: The Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  2. ^ Quemere, Andrew. "Massachusetts SWAT Group Still Won't Abide by Public Records Law Despite ACLU Lawsuit". Photography is not a Crime. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  3. ^ Radley Balko (2014-06-26). "Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they're private corporations, immune from open records laws". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  4. ^ Keith Eddings (2014-12-13). "Agency takes down controversial website". The Daily News of Newburyport. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  5. ^ Keith Eddings (2014-12-15). "Regional police agency pulls website despite suit". Gloucester Daily Times. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  6. ^ Manning, Allison (7 July 2015). "Here are the SWAT documents one police agency wanted kept secret". Boston.com. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  7. ^ Balko, Radley (8 July 2015). "Documents show excessive use of Massachusetts SWAT teams". Washington Post. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council Agencies - MassMostWanted". www.massmostwanted.org. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
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