MA SWAT Teams Claim Theyre Private Corporations and Immune from Open Records Laws So theyre heavily armed agents of the government when its convenient, but a private corporation when the law cramps their style. Of course being a private corporation ought to also mean giving up all qualified immunity for their actions as well. As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in the Bay State are operated by what are called law enforcement councils, or LECs. These LECs are funded by several police agencies in a given geographic area and overseen by an executive board, which is usually made up of police chiefs from member police departments. ... Some of these LECs have also apparently incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations. And its here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that theyre private corporations, not government agencies. And therefore, they say theyre immune from open records requests. Lets be clear. These agencies oversee police activities. They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure and kill. They operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences. And yet they say that because theyve incorporated, theyre immune to Massachusetts open records laws. The states residents arent permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what theyre used for, what sort of training they get or who theyre primarily used against. washingtonpost/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/26/massachusetts-swat-teams-claim-theyre-private-corporations-immune-from-open-records-laws/?tid=pm_pop
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 17:44:42 +0000
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