Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They’re Private Corporations, Immune To Oversight

28th June 2014 10:04

Original source New submitter thermowax sends a report on how Massachusetts SWAT teams are dodging open records requests by claiming to be corporations. From the article: 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 it’s here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that they’re private corporations, not government agencies. And therefore, they say they’re immune from open records requests. Let’s 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 they’ve incorporated, they’re immune to Massachusetts open records laws. The state’s residents aren’t permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what they’re used for, what sort of training they get or who they’re primarily used against.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.








Dept. of Monsterology now available on Comixology

19:00

Original source

department of monsterology

You can now grab the first two issues of this comic, as well as getting a preview of both HERE

I’ve still only read the first issue, as well as the mini prequel they published in the Megazine, but loved the hell out of those so glad to see it’s getting pushed out on this platform and will hopefully reach a wider audience.

There’s a really cool post over on PJ Holden’s blog about the comic as well.