CMLEC
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Central Mass. Law Enforcement Consortium ??. Last I knew it was not in operation. Sterling is part of a regional SWAT team. Everybody in N.Central uses MSP SWAT
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134 Posts
What do you mean by "local control" of incidents?
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134 Posts
It's interesting you put it that way. I've been on the MSP STOP team for a while and I've never seen "us" take away control from a requesting town or chief. In fact I remember one incident where the team wanted things to go one way but the local chief knew the subject and didn't think it would benefit the situation. The chief was right and the incident ended very well.
The STOP team has been around since 1971 responding to thousands of calls during that time all over the state. They are prepared for barricaded subjects, hostage situations, high risk warrant service, wooded searches for armed suspects, VIP/Dignitary protection and armed emotionally disturbed persons just to highlight a few. They often are able to use and utilize the Hostage Negotiation team, K-9 support, and Airwing. The STOP team trains four days a monthor more to keep their skills sharp. Training is an ongoing process for the STOP Team. Team members attend seminars and training events nationwide, often returning to provide the instruction to the remaining team officers. Members are certified in many tactical policing disciplines such as firearms instruction, breaching, entry, rappelling, use of distraction and less-lethal devices and entry into hazardous environments such as clandestine laboratories. Each Trooper carries his gear in his cruiser for quick response times.
Any town can get these assets with a phone call and does not have to pay for it. Yes, that is a common misconception that if you call for the STOP team, the town will get billed for the service. That does not happen. Another misconception is that once the STOP team arrives they take full control of everything and the local Chief and his officers have no say in what happens. This too is not true. The STOP commander will work with the local department to effectively resolve the issue at hand, often utilizing local intelligence and resources. Still another misconception of the STOP team is that it will take hours for them to arrive on scene and a local team can get their much quicker. Once again that is not true. In fact 12 of the 33 team members live in Worcester County. Five in Worcester or a bordering town.
As a State Trooper and a member of the STOP team I am assuring you that Worcester County would have no trouble getting 12-13 members in a town and ready for an incident within 15-20 minutes. The Worcester area has probably the fastest response time for a large portion of the team than any other part of the state. We train more than any other team like us in New England and we respond in fully marked cruisers with our gear. Not only does it not cost the town anything to have us respond but we also remove the liability from the town.
Fortuneatly for me the town I live in doesn't belong to CMLEC. I'd be pretty pissed knowing I was paying for services we already got for nothing. Kind of like the old cliche, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"
The STOP team has been around since 1971 responding to thousands of calls during that time all over the state. They are prepared for barricaded subjects, hostage situations, high risk warrant service, wooded searches for armed suspects, VIP/Dignitary protection and armed emotionally disturbed persons just to highlight a few. They often are able to use and utilize the Hostage Negotiation team, K-9 support, and Airwing. The STOP team trains four days a monthor more to keep their skills sharp. Training is an ongoing process for the STOP Team. Team members attend seminars and training events nationwide, often returning to provide the instruction to the remaining team officers. Members are certified in many tactical policing disciplines such as firearms instruction, breaching, entry, rappelling, use of distraction and less-lethal devices and entry into hazardous environments such as clandestine laboratories. Each Trooper carries his gear in his cruiser for quick response times.
Any town can get these assets with a phone call and does not have to pay for it. Yes, that is a common misconception that if you call for the STOP team, the town will get billed for the service. That does not happen. Another misconception is that once the STOP team arrives they take full control of everything and the local Chief and his officers have no say in what happens. This too is not true. The STOP commander will work with the local department to effectively resolve the issue at hand, often utilizing local intelligence and resources. Still another misconception of the STOP team is that it will take hours for them to arrive on scene and a local team can get their much quicker. Once again that is not true. In fact 12 of the 33 team members live in Worcester County. Five in Worcester or a bordering town.
As a State Trooper and a member of the STOP team I am assuring you that Worcester County would have no trouble getting 12-13 members in a town and ready for an incident within 15-20 minutes. The Worcester area has probably the fastest response time for a large portion of the team than any other part of the state. We train more than any other team like us in New England and we respond in fully marked cruisers with our gear. Not only does it not cost the town anything to have us respond but we also remove the liability from the town.
Fortuneatly for me the town I live in doesn't belong to CMLEC. I'd be pretty pissed knowing I was paying for services we already got for nothing. Kind of like the old cliche, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"
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1,348 Posts
I agree with 357 and not because we work for the same job. My town wanted to fund its own K-9 unit and "incident response team" yet I know first hand that they will run short of district cars often leaving only 3 officers to cover a town of near 30,000 on eves or mids. I myself dialed 911 once when someone tried to enter my rear door and they had no one to send because they were short handed - instead of spending money on overtime to keep levels staffed. :shock: I dont like it but if money is the factor then how dare you form the idea for creating other units. Even if you regionalize, it costs money and takes resources away from my family's safety. I am dead against it as a town resident. The MSP has K-9's living in the next towns over and STOP team Troopers less than 25 min away. Some of their own officers were against the ideas and used the same argument I make here. They also had 2 of their detectives working on a duplicate off shoot drug task force (there are 2 already in place for the Springfield area). These guys spent 80% of their time in other towns while collecting pay from my tax dollars. We have crime here too. However, I know of no time when that "unit" ever worked something in my town. Eventually they were taken out of the DB and the Chief never rejoined that "task force".
Sound selfish? Damn right. The cops in my town are excellent but I do not want them running off elswhere into someone else's town leaving mine exposed OR costing me extra money to fill their vacancy. :x
Sound selfish? Damn right. The cops in my town are excellent but I do not want them running off elswhere into someone else's town leaving mine exposed OR costing me extra money to fill their vacancy. :x
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4,123 Posts
That's right! It comes down to "guys who want to be neat"...if your department is not of a sufficient size to provide these services themselves, then either get on a department that can fund these things, or not: just be a cop. Period.
Let the large cities and MSP have "neat guys", and just be the best cop you can be...
Let the large cities and MSP have "neat guys", and just be the best cop you can be...
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