Help MERIT to be ALWAYS READY

The Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigations Team (MERIT) is a countywide multi-jurisdictional task force charged with leading investigations into serious crimes, critical incidents and other law enforcement endeavors in DuPage County, Illinois. As one of the only task forces of its kind in the nation, MERIT provides a single source for highly skilled, efficient and collaborative law enforcement for the express mutual benefit of every community we serve.

The MERIT team is critical for smaller departments, which don’t have the resources to handle all the needs required of a major incident. The pooling of resources into a combined countywide entity has led to the expedient solution of serious crimes, critical incidents and other law enforcement initiatives in a more effective and efficient manner. In fact, since August 2019, MERIT has been activated more than 1000 times to achieve successful results in protecting lives and property — and ensuring offenders of serious criminal acts are brought to justice.

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MERIT has officers ready to help, but we don’t always have the needed equipment.
At times, some of our component teams are borrowing vehicles and/or equipment from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) or other counties for mass shootings, hostage events, barricaded incidents, accident reconstruction and forensics. These vehicles and equipment aren’t easy to secure, and they aren’t always available.