ILEAS (the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System) was born after September 11th as a joint venture of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. It was formed in 2002 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 and terrorism prevention, response and recovery. Since then, ILEAS’ mission has significantly grown to include homeland security grant management for 40% of the total Illinois homeland security fund.

It is important to note that ILEAS is NOT an operational law enforcement agency that employs police officers. It is a consortium of every sheriff’s office and nearly 900 police agencies that have banded together to help one another during disasters and crises. ILEAS is a gubernatorial appointee to the Illinois Terrorism Task Force and as such, represents all local law enforcement on the Task Force. ILEAS is a non-partisan organization that works equally well with the sheriffs, police chiefs, Illinois State Police, and the Chicago Police Department.

ILEAS manages major mutual aid requests for local law enforcement in Illinois. If a crisis stresses any law enforcement agency past its point of resource capabilities, one phone call to ILEAS can bring virtually unlimited help from other local agencies. ILEAS assists local agencies in developing and implementing their disaster pre-plans. We maintain those plans in a secured online system available whenever disaster strikes. The very first ILEAS mutual aid activation was for the Utica tornado in 2005.

ILEAS is recognized by the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA as a unique, premier law enforcement mutual aid organization. ILEAS IS THE ONLY STATEWIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT MUTUAL AID ORGANIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES. ILEAS has a seat on the FEMA Law Enforcement Workgroup which is tasked with writing standards for interstate law enforcement mutual aid throughout the United States.

During the Katrina disaster, the Governor of Illinois reached out to ILEAS to provide law enforcement assistance to Louisiana. Within 72 hours, ILEAS organized, equipped and deployed 150 tactical officers to the New Orleans area. Two weeks later, ILEAS sent another 150 officers for a total of a 30-day deployment. This group consisted of Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department, and local officers from dozens of different agencies in Illinois. Dubbed “Task Force Illinois”, Illinois earned a national reputation for professionalism and organization that no other state law enforcement response could match.