For more information on policing in Massachusetts, see entry on Boston Police.
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As of 2016, the New Bedford Police Department was sharing and accessing information through COPLINK, a surveillance and criminalization platform developed by IBM and the software company i2, which has been called “Google for police officers." Through COPLINK, New Bedford Police officials share their field interviews along with arrest, complaint, accident, and citation reports with other departments who utilize the platform in MA and nationwide, and New Bedford Police officials are able to access the field interviews and arrest, complaint, accident, and citation reports of these other police departments. Agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "have direct access to the Massachusetts version of the COPLINK system," enabling ICE agents to access any information New Bedford Police officials enter into COPLINK and utilize this information to facilitate ICE's regime of tracking, detentions, and deportations of Black and Brown migrants.
The New Bedford Police Department shares field interviews, arrest, complaint, accident, and citation reports, and other information through COPLINK, a surveillance and criminalization platform developed by IBM and the software company i2. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "have direct access to the Massachusetts version of the COPLINK system," enabling ICE to access information New Bedford Police Department officers enter into COPLINK and utilize this information to facilitate ICE's regime of tracking, detentions, and deportations.
The New Bedford Police Department is a member agency of the Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (SEMLEC). Like other Law Enforcement Councils (LECs) in Massachusetts, SEMLEC functions to increase regional collaboration between police and sheriff's departments, while organizing SWAT teams and obtaining military equipment for use by its member agencies. Set up as non-profit professional organizations, LECs have attempted to restrict public knowledge of their activities and have refused public records requests.