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"The mission of ILEAS is to meet the needs of law enforcement throughout the State of Illinois in matters of mutual aid, emergency response and the combining of resources for public safety."
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ILEAS, which stands for "Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System," is a way for law enforcement agencies to assist their neighbors without draining their entire resources. Each agency signs a standard agreement stating that they will help in an emergency and are subject to ILEAS policies. Each agency also creates an "Alarm Card" where they list who to call when they need help. An Alarm Card typically calls on adjacent agencies first, then proceeds outward away from the requesting area. In this way, no single agency is in danger of depleting its resources and becoming unable to respond to its own emergencies. As of July 22nd, 2005, ILEAS had 749 member agencies and 498 completed mutual aid alarm cards.
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The Henry County Sheriff's Office is a member in good standing of the ILEAS program.
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One of the primary missions for ILEAS is to coordinate statewide mutual aid for all law enforcement in Illinois. For years, police and sheriff's agencies have worked together locally and developed literally dozens of different mutual aid arrangements. Over 20 years ago, agencies north and west of Chicago formed a mutual aid organization called the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System (NIPAS). It was based on the Fire Mutual Aid Box Alarm (MABAS) that had existed already for many years. Over time, NIPAS grew to include dozens of police agencies.
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When ILEAS was formed in 2002, it expanded the NIPAS model statewide. The box alarm system provides each agency three big advantages for dealing with major crises where the individual agency's resources are overwhelmed:
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With a signed mutual aid agreement, every participating agency has solid legal footing to exercise police authority outside their jurisdiction when responding to a call for assistance pursuant to the agreement. Additionally, every agency involved has signed the same agreement statewide and the risks, liability, authority and cost distribution are clearly spelled out.
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The mutual aid response is "pre-planned" and therefore less chaotic during an emergency. The onerous and time-consuming task of calling individual agencies for help is moved from the stricken agency to ILEAS.
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It provides an established platform for potential reimbursement of costs if a state or federal disaster is declared.
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The State of Illinois is also a signatory of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, commonly referred to as the EMAC. As a member of ILEAS, any police agency in Illinois could voluntarily participate in requests for assistance from other States. This last occurred in August of 2004 when Florida requested 50 officers from Illinois to help with hurricane recovery.
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