If they consider themselves private corporations wouldn't that mean their "employees" are breaking laws by a) using the weapons they have access to b) breaking into people's homes and c) arresting people...
it seems that they are employees of the particular law enforcement agencies, but the equipment and activities related to SWAT are managed within these corporations.
Breaking into someones house and discharging 70+ rounds of ammunition is an 'activity related to SWAT' and would land any employee of $DEV_SHOP, Inc. in jail, why are these corporations any different?
It's possible for a cop to have an off-duty job just as much as it's possible for most other government employees to have a hobby (and possibly get paid for it).
But these cops can't have their cake and eat it too. If while acting as a private enterprise they happen to come across a situation requiring them to act as an off-duty cop, then they should be treated as a cop for that situation, which includes liability to answer to records requests. If they're going to employ their public immunity to charges for some actions then they should be held to all the other responsibilities of being a public employee for that time.
So these are government employees, acting in the context of their duties ...as government employees, but records pertaining to their actions, expenditures, etc. are not required because the 501(c)3 owns... what exactly?
Either you're kicking in the door and killing an elderly man in a poorly executed search for 0.2g of marijuana and a man in the backyard as a law enforcement officer, in which case you should be bound by the same requirements every tax-funded police department is, or you're doing it as an employee of a tax-exempt corporation, in which case you should go to jail for B&E, Homicide, possession of an automatic weapon, possession of marijuana, etc.
I believe their argument is the LECs are private non-profit corporations that merely provide coordination and equipment to law enforcement agencies. The police officers are never working for the LEC, and I'm sure any police-only equipment is only ever 'in possession' by member departments. The LEC is basically a more formalized mutual aid agreement among multiple agencies.
I would assume you could query each individual agency as to how often their officers participate in swat operations, but without knowing how often the LEC was called, I don't see how you could get an accurate count of the total raids. Perhaps each jurisdiction would have to report how often they called the LEC into their jurisdiction.
They may be actually be legally right due to basically a technicality. Perfect for time for the state legislature to reign in the LECs and make open records apply to mutual aid agencies/agreements. I'm sure their representatives are jumping on that right now...
