The Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, Special Weapons and Tactics team was started in 1995 and was based out of the Auburn Police Department. It was started as a regional SWAT team that would be based on mutual aid agreements between the participating towns, and they would be able to provide specialized services and manpower to towns that didn’t have the manpower or the training that is necessary in certain situations. The original towns on CEMLEC were Auburn, Webster, Southbridge, and Millbury. Today CEMLEC has grown to cover 42 cities and towns, and we are proud to be a member department. HPD SWAT team members include Sgt. Jesse Hayden (team leader), Sgt. Shamus Veo (Asst. Team Leader), Det. James Connolly (Asst. Team Leader/FBI Task Force member), and Ofc. James Downing. Sgt. Sam Leandres is assigned to the CEMLEC Regional K9 Team.
In addition to member community requests for service, the CEMLEC SWAT Team responds to assist other Massachusetts SWAT Teams. These requests involve providing event security, executing search warrants, responding to reports of barricaded subjects, and executing arrest warrants, in addition to countless hours of weekly training.
For information regarding CEMLEC SWAT, contact Team Leader Sgt. Jesse Hayden at jhayden@townofhudson.org or (978) 562-7122.