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The Berkshire Special Response Unit's armored tactical truck.

(The Republican / Patrick Johnson)

When filing requests for public records, the demand for documents can be denied for many reasons. The ACLU of Massachusetts received a surprising one from SWAT teams across the state; the groups claimed they are private corporations, immune to such requests for records.

The ACLU has filed suit to obtain the documents.

As a part of an annual report, the ACLU filed public records requests with police departments, drug task force operations, and regional law enforcement councils in Massachusetts earlier this year.

Across the state, many SWAT teams are operated by law enforcement councils, commonly known as just LECs.

240 of the 351 police departments in Massachusetts belong to law enforcement councils, commonly known as just LECs. The LECs serve as regional police department consortiums, overseen by an executive board typically with member police department chiefs serving on the board. The LECs operate many of the SWAT teams across the state, in addition to other specialized units.

While the councils allow departments to share technology and information, the ACLU has taken issue with them on an organizational level. Some of the LECs are incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations. This status allows the organization to be considered tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. Additionally, the LECs cited their incorporation status to deny the request for public documents.

As the LECs are funded by local and federal taxes, and members include public law enforcement officials exclusively, the ACLU protests the denied request.

"Hiding behind the argument that they are private corporations not subject to the public records laws, the LECs have refused to provide documents regarding their SWAT team policies and procedures. They have also failed to disclose anything about their operations, including how many raids they have executed or for what purpose,” the ACLU report states. "This failure to keep and make publicly available adequate records about SWAT raids obstructs the public’s view of police practices in Massachusetts, prohibiting the oversight necessary to prevent abuse and ensure democracy.”

The organization says it seeks to learn of SWAT team training materials, incident reports, equipment contracts, deployment statistics and guidelines as to the use of deadly force.

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The ACLU also called into question the state public records laws. "Due to the weakness of Massachusetts public records law and the culture of secrecy that has infected local police departments and Law Enforcement Councils, procuring empirical records from police departments and regional SWAT teams in Massachusetts about police militarization was universally difficult and, in most instances, impossible,” the ACLU report states.

Massachusetts Public Records Law almost exactly parallels the federal Freedom of Information Act signed into law in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The federal law was amended four decades ago by Congress to make government records more accessible to the public.

"Every government record in Massachusetts is presumed to be public unless it may be withheld under a specifically stated exemption," Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin wrote in a guide to the state law.

There are 31 exemptions to the law that provide basis for withholding records completely or in part. Exemptions allow requests to be denied if they could inhibit the proper performance of government function.

The ACLU claims its request will not interfere with function of law enforcement.

For refusing to release records, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, a consortium of 58 municipal police and sheriff agencies from Haverhill to Framingham. The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, calls on the court to rule that the documents are public records and to release them. No hearing has been scheduled yet.