Request Submitted To: Various Commonwealth Police Departments

Category: Law Enforcement

Year Filed: 2013

Background

The purpose of this request was to seek records from the SWAT and Special Tactical Operations (“STOP”) teams of various Commonwealth police departments. Specifically, we asked for deployment history, weapons access, training, mutual aid agreements, budgets, and audits.

The ACLU of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against NEMLEC, a regional SWAT team, after the organization claimed it was private and therefore wasn’t subject to the state’s public records law. In June 2015 NEMLEC settled with the ACLU, acknowledging that it is subject to the records law. The lawsuit unearthed a treasure trove of documents.