|
The North Eastern Massachusetts Law
Enforcement Council (N.E.M.L.E.C.) was established when several local Police
Chiefs began meeting informally to share information and discuss
common problems. The original communities were Burlington, North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield,
Wilmington, Winchester, and Woburn. They were assisted by then Asst. District Attorney Neil Walker who is currently the
presiding Justice of Lowell District Court.
The Council is very much a product of the
turbulent social and political struggles of the Sixties.
 The increase in crime and disorder
associated with "suburban sprawl" as people migrated from the 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 many quaint, idyllic New
England towns. N.E.M.L.E.C. has evolved over the years to address
the ever-changing demands placed upon the law enforcement
profession.
The purpose of the Council is to provide a system for
the dissemination of information among law enforcement agencies and
to provide mutual assistance and logistical support to meet the
immediate requirements of an emergency or unusual situation when the
resources normally available to a community are not sufficient to
handle the situation. The Council therefore make available to
each community the public safety assets and resources of all the
member communities Each department signs a comprehensive Mutual Aid
Compact designed "…to increase and improve their capabilities to
provide protection of life and property and thereby preserving the
safety and welfare of this area."(1)
By 1967, fourteen additional Police Chiefs had
joined the Council (2) and the first regional police recruit academy
in Massachusetts was formed by the Council. The chiefs recognized
that the lack of adequate recruit training was a major obstacle to
their ability to meet their responsibilities. The Northern
Middlesex Police Academy was established five years before the
Commonwealth created the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training
Council that now oversees all police training. The Academy's first
class began on May 1, 1967, at Lowell State Teachers College. This
academy would evolve into the North Eastern Regional Police
Institute (N.E.R.P.I.) which was located in
Tewksbury.
The Police Chiefs formally incorporated their
organization on July 3, 1969 and on that date the Council's
Tactical Police Force (T.P.F) was created. Even before it was
formally created the T.P.F. was Lieutenant Terry Henry of the
Billerica Police Department.
The Council received the first of many state and
federal grants in 1971 when it was awarded $92,000 to study recruit
training curriculum. The Council was also awarded several
other grants that years to train and equip the T.P.F. By 1974, the
Council had received over a half million dollars in grants. Monies
were received to create a regional communications system, to
establish a regional narcotics investigative unit and to develop a
planning and research unit to identify other areas where the Council
could work together more efficiently and cost
effectively.
While the Council was very much a product of the
turbulent social and political conditions of the Sixties, it has
continued to grow and adapt to meet data technology and is preparing
to meet the requirements of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
information age NCIC 2000 Project.
The Council has also created within the T.P.F a
Special Operations Unit to address today's high-risk
situations where armed resistance can be expected. The T.P.F.
Control Officers, Chief Richard M. Stanley, of the North
Andover Police Department, and Chief William Soda of the
Burlington Police Department, has recently acquired a grant
to provide this unit with the best body armor available.
Since its founding the Council has received almost
$2 million in grants that in most cases would not have been
available to the individual departments.
During the spring of 1999 in the wake of several
school violence incidents the NEMLEC Chiefs formed an alliance with
the Superintendents of their respective school districts and are in
the process of developing a unified regional response to school
violence. The program will be called STARS (School Threat
Assessment and Response System). Grant money from both the State
and Federal Governments is being applied for to help support this
program.
1 Interagency Mutual Aid / Assistance Agreement
(N.E.M.L.E.C.) Compact, Section I, Introduction.
2 The fourteen new Communities were Andover,
Bedford, Billerica, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Lawrence, Lowell,
Melrose, Methuen, North Andover, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, and
Westford.
| 
