For more information on policing in Massachusetts, see entry on Boston Police.
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In 2018, Chief of the Wayland Police Department Patrick Swanick participated in an all-expenses-paid “counterterrorism seminar” in Israel sponsored by the New England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL sponsors this and other similar all-expenses-paid delegations to Israel for high-ranking New England police, ICE, FBI, and other security officials, where these officials meet with Israeli military, police, and intelligence agencies, with whom they train and exchange tactics including surveillance, racial profiling, crowd control, and the containment of protests.
As WickedLocal reported at the time: "Police Chief Patrick Swanick packed his bags for an overseas trip...Swanick is flying to Israel. He’s one of 15 law enforcement personnel from New England that will spend a week learning cutting-edge security measures from the Israeli National Police and Palestinian police. The Anti-Defamation League's New England office in Boston organized the trip, and didn’t release the names of other participants, citing security reasons. 'It's timely, based on everything that’s happening in this country,' Swanick said of the all-expenses-paid trip by the ADL that comes after recent mass shootings at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, that claimed 12 lives, and at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, where 11 worshipers were gunned down. Almost every year since 2008, the ADL has sent a New England contingent of police officers to Israel for specialized training, and Robert Trestan, ADL New England’s executive director, and who has tagged along on every one."
The Wayland Police Department is listed as a full member of the Greater Boston Police Council, a "law enforcement council" (LEC) set up in the 1970s to link regional police forces and share resources for policing anti-war protests. LECs in Massachusetts have played a central role in militarizing police by organizing SWAT teams and purchasing military equipment such as Lenco Bearcats and other armored vehicles.
The Wayland Police Department is a member agency of the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council (Metro LEC). Like other Law Enforcement Councils (LECs) in Massachusetts, Metro LEC 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 and operating largely out of public view as a semi-private organization.