North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council

The North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council or "NEMLEC" is a private corporation formed by 58 police agencies in Middlesex and Essex County, Massachusetts.[1] It pools police resources to provide specialized units in its service area. NEMLEC units include;[2]

The organization is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Its president is Michael Begonis, the chief of the Wilmington Police Department.[3] As a private corporation, NEMLEC claims that it is able to keep its internal organization and operations out of the public's view.[4] It does not respond to open records requests. The North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council or (NEMLEC), was recently forced to take its website offline after a startling revelation was discovered on its “mission statement” page.

“The disorder associated with suburban sprawl as people migrated from larger cities, the development of the interstate highway system, the civil rights movement and the growing resistance to the Vietnam War threatened to overwhelm the serenity of the quaint, idyllic New England towns north and west of Boston,” NEMLEC mission statement[5]


The council is in charge of the region’s SWAT teams, and is currently the target of an ACLU lawsuit, which is hoping to force the agency to release their records to the public. [6] [7]

Agencies that belong to NEMLEC include:[8]

  • Amesbury Police Department
  • Andover Police Department
  • Arlington Police Department
  • Bedford Police Department
  • Belmont Police Department
  • Beverly Police Department
  • Billerica Police Department
  • Burlington Police Department
  • Carlisle Police Department
  • Chelmsford Police Department
  • Concord Police Department
  • Danvers Police Department
  • Dracut Police Department
  • Dunstable Police Department
  • Essex County Sheriff's Department
  • Georgetown Police Department
  • Gloucester Police Department
  • Groton Police Department
  • Haverhill Police Department
  • Lawrence Police Department
  • Lexington Police Department
  • Lincoln Police Department
  • Littleton Police Department
  • Lowell Police Department
  • Lynnfield Police Department
  • Malden Police Department
  • Marblehead Police Department
  • Maynard Police Department
  • Medford Police Department
  • Melrose Police Department
  • Methuen Police Department
  • Middlesex County Sheriff's Office
  • Merrimack Police Department
  • Newbury Police Department
  • Newburyport Police Department
  • Newton Police Department
  • North Andover Police Department
  • North Reading Police Department
  • Peabody Police Department
  • Pepperell Police Department
  • Reading Police Department
  • Rowley Police Department
  • Salem Police Department
  • Saugus Police Department
  • Somerville Police Department
  • Stoneham Police Department
  • Tewksbury Police Department
  • Townsend Police Department
  • Tyngsborough Police Department
  • Wakefield Police Department
  • Waltham Police Department
  • Watertown Police Department
  • Wenham Police Department
  • Westford Police Department
  • Weston Police Department
  • Wilmington Police Department
  • Winchester Police Department
  • Woburn Police Department

References

  1. ↑ NEMLEC official web site, accessed 28 June 2014
  2. ↑ NEMLEC official web site, accessed 28 June 2014
  3. ↑ NEMLEC official web site, accessed 28 June 2014
  4. ↑ Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they're private corporations, immune from open records laws, by Radley Balko, 26 June 2014 Washington Post
  5. ↑ Regional police agency pulls website despite suit; by Keith Eddings, 15 December 2014, Glouster Times
  6. ↑ Regional police agency pulls website despite suit; by Keith Eddings, 15 December 2014, Glouster Times
  7. ↑ v; by Keith Eddings, 11 December 2014, Glouster Times
  8. ↑ http://www.massmostwanted.org/index.cfm?ac=MetroLEC, accessed 27 June 2014

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/local_news/regional-police-agency-pulls-website-despite-suit/article_5c16100c-26cc-5336-83e6-57d891d44f3d.html

http://www.newburyportnews.com/news/local_news/agency-takes-down-controversial-website/article_ef2fe5ff-aae0-5292-ac52-38960fb08665.html