In 2004, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) established five "homeland security planning regions" to receive funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Metropolitan Area Planning Council manages DHS grants for Homeland Security Advisory Councils set up for four of these regions: Northeast Homeland Security Region Advisory Council (NERAC); Central Region Homeland Security Council (CRHSAC); Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council (WRHSAC); and Southeast Regional Homeland Security Advisory Council (SRAC).
Like other "Homeland Security" initiatives, under cover of "counterterrorism," these advisory councils seek to further integrate local, state, and federal police forces and to militarize these forces for the suppression of popular uprisings and for urban warfare. (See separate entry on the Department of Homeland Security.)
Meeting minutes of the advisory councils show consistent spending on equipment and training for "Law Enforcement Council" (LECs) in the corresponding regions. LECs are officially private professional organizations that link regional police forces to share equipment, train together in military style exercises, and form SWAT teams. LECs have attempted to use their status as private corporations to deny public records requests about their activities.
The Central Region Homeland Security Council has a shared equipment list which includes a BearCat Armored Vehicle held by the Sutton Police Department. Meeting minutes for October 7, 2014 show a motion for "Bear Cat Training for SWAT" for CEMLEC ($11,790). Meeting minutes from the Central Region Homeland Security Advisory Council's "Training Committee" include further discussion about CEMLEC's BearCat. (See also entry on CEMLEC.)
As of 2022, leadership of the Central Region Homeland Security Advisory Council consisted of the following: Chief Dean Kochanowski, Dudley Fire, Council Chair; Chief C. Thomas O’Donnell, West Brookfield Police, Council Vice Chair; Christopher Montiverdi, Leicester Public Health & Holden Fire, Council 2nd Vice Chair; Chief Russ Hall, Holden Fire, Equipment Subcommittee Chair; James Barclay, Royalston EM, Interoperability Subcommittee Chair; Lt. Neal Aspesi, Southborough Fire/EMS, Training Subcommittee Chair; Lt. Michael Borowiec, Shrewsbury Fire, Mass Care/Sheltering Subcommittee Chair; and Major Karmin Ng, U.S. Army National Guard, Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chair.
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CRHSAC obtains Department of Homeland Security grants to provide military equipment and training to CEMLEC. The two organizations work together to further integrate police forces within the CEMLEC consortium and to militarize these forces for the suppression of popular uprisings and for urban warfare. Meeting minutes for October 7, 2014 show a motion for "Bear Cat Training for SWAT" for CEMLEC ($11,790).
The Central Region Homeland Security Council has a shared equipment list that includes a BearCat Armored Vehicle, held by the Sutton Police Department.
The Central Region Homeland Security Advisory Council (CRHSAC) is one of five Massachusetts "homeland security planning regions" which receive funding from Department of Homeland Security (DHS).