Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council Explained

The Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council sometimes called "MetroLEC," is a regional mutual aid facilitator formed by 45 police agencies in the area near Boston, Massachusetts. It pools resources to provide SWAT, canine, hostage negotiation, computer crimes, motorcycle and other units throughout the area. Its fleet includes at least one armored car and a mobile command post. Press reports indicated that in 2016 it used its SWAT unit twenty-six times. MetroLEC, like other such agencies such as the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, claims it is a private organization and exempt from open records laws.[1]

The group was established sometime before 2004.[2] Richard Stillman, the Walpole chief of police served as the group's president for ten years. By 2017, Canton Police Chief Ken Berkowitz was the group's leader.[3] In 2020, the chief of the Norton Police Department was serving as president of the group.[4]

Agencies that belong to MetroLEC include:[5]

Notes and References

  1. News: Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they're private corporations, immune from open records laws. en-US. Washington Post. 2021-12-12. 0190-8286. Radley Balko. 2014-06-26.
  2. https://www.walpolepd.com/programs_metrolec.html Walpole Police official web site, Programs & Initiatives page
  3. News: Russell. Jena. His parents said he just needed to sleep. A SWAT team came instead.. 18 July 2017. Boston Globe. 17 June 2017.
  4. Web site: Executive Board . Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council . 15 May 2020.
  5. Web site: Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council Agencies. 2021-12-12. MassMostWanted.