State of Illinois Law Enforcement Agency Membership
As part of a recent year-long review of our foundational documents, ILEAS has developed three new mutual aid agreements. The first is the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Agreement (LEMAA) which is designed specifically for the public local governmental law enforcement agencies such as cities, special districts and counties. The second agreement is specifically for the private entity that employs sworn police officers that are certified by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB) such as private colleges/universities and railroad police. The third version of the agreement is for the State of Illinois Agencies with statewide jurisdiction. This applies to agencies such as:
- Illinois State Police
- Illinois Department of Natural Resources
- Illinois Secretary of State
- Illinois Commerce Commission
- Illinois Attorney General
One of the primary features of the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Agreement (LEMAA) is to provide a methodology for officers and deputies to exercise authority outside their jurisdictions and to provide all the conditions regarding insurance, chain of command, etc. needed during multi-jurisdictional mutual aid events. However, most of those provisions are not necessary for law enforcement officers from State agencies who already have statewide authority. During the review process, it was determined that the best approach would be the development of a Memorandum of Understanding between the State agency and ILEAS as a representative of all the agencies that have signed the standard LEMAA. The adoption of an MOU between ILEAS & State agencies AND ILEAS & private agencies employing sworn officer AND the LEMAA itself will both continue and improve on the highly successful law enforcement mutual aid system in the United States.
PLEASE NOTE – When a State Agency moves away from the original Agreement and adopts the new MOU, it will no longer be required to pay ILEAS membership dues.
THE PATH FORWARD is a brochure that explains, 1) the benefits of ILEAS membership, 2) the history of ILEAS and its current status as a vibrant organization, 3) the differences between the new and the original LEMAA Agreements, and 4) how to adopt the State Agency MOU.
The current mutual aid agreement that each State agency has already signed with ILEAS will remain in effect until the new MOU is adopted. During the week of May 12th, 2014, ILEAS sent individualized letters and MOUs to each of the State Agencies for their review. ILEAS’ goal is to get every current member to sign either a LEMAA or the State Agency MOU by March 1, 2015. If you, your political leadership or legal counsel have any questions, they can contact Mick McAvoy (mmcavoy@ileas.org) or Larry Evans (lgevans@ileas.org) at 217-328-3800.
Access to Your Agency’s Personalized ILEAS Web Page
- Every member agency gets access to a password-protected personalized ILEAS web page. This is where you provide data about the resources that you have that might be available to other members in an emergency. You can also apply for authorized special team overtime reimbursements, search the resource database of every other ILEAS member and provide contact information for use during emergencies.
- If you don’t already have a password, contact the ILEAS office at 217-328-3800 to get a password assigned and work with ILEAS staff to get all of your resources entered in to the database as well as update current contact information.
Submission
- The complete original signed MOU should be submitted to ILEAS:
ATTN: Nancy Crossman (nrcrossman@ileas.org)
1701 E. Main Street
Urbana, IL 61802
Once received at ILEAS, the MOU will be countersigned and an executed complete copy will be returned to you.