Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (LECC)

The Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (LECC) is a program whose primary mission is to facilitate and promote coordination, communication, and cooperation among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in the Eastern District of North Carolina, by providing resources, information, training, and technical assistance to those agencies.  In the Eastern District of North Carolina, the program is coordinated by Don Connelly, who has been in the position since 1992.

In the summer of 1981, the Attorney General’s Task Force on Violent Crime, a bi-partisan group of national criminal justice experts tasked with examining federal, state, and local law enforcement needs, recommended that the Attorney General establish a forum to enhance inter-agency communication at all levels of law enforcement. The Attorney General acted on that recommendation and formed the Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (LECC) to improve coordination and cooperation among law enforcement agencies in an effort to enhance the effectiveness of the criminal justice system within each federal judicial district.

Over the years the LECC program has existed in this District, its mission has expanded and evolved into a more comprehensive outreach program.  This, in part, is due to the recognition that law enforcement alone cannot solve the crime problems of our communities.  To have a positive impact on crime, the community itself must be involved.  Although the primary focus of the LEC Coordinator’s work is law enforcement-related, he also works with a broad spectrum of individuals and non-governmental agencies in our office’s efforts to reduce crime.

Some of the resources the office provides to law enforcement agencies are training seminars, classes, and conferences, access to Department of Justice grant information, Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) District meetings, and other law enforcement meetings that work to improve cooperation and communication between agencies.

The LECC program is known throughout the country for its excellent training courses.  Recent training conferences coordinated through the LECC program include the PSN Gang and Guns-Making Your Firearms Case More Prosecutable, Southern States Crime Victims Assistance Conference, the Bank Secrecy Act Seminar, and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Drug Investigation Conference.

The LEC Coordinator works within established law enforcement associations and organizations to remain knowledgeable about current issues affecting law enforcement agencies and to insure that law enforcement agencies and law enforcement personnel receive timely information when new federal initiatives are launched or policies changes that affect them.  The LEC also communicates with the U.S. Attorney or their designee to help set District priorities and to identify areas and projects in which the LEC should participate to further the goal of the LECC program.

For further information about the LECC Program, please contact Don at 919-856-4530 or by email at don.connelly@usdoj.gov.