Wisconsin police have over $45M in military equipment
National program offers excess armored vehicles
Wisconsin law enforcement agencies have more than $45 million worth of surplus military equipment in their possession through a Department of Defense program at a time when some police have come under criticism for “militant” responses to protests.
That includes $28.7 million worth of mine-resistant armored vehicles provided to 39 law enforcement agencies across Wisconsin through the so-called 1033 program, all at little to no cost to the departments, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of federal data.
That kind of heavy equipment has been spotted on Milwaukee streets during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
During confrontations between police and protesters, officers rode in
armored vehicles and fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters, a response that drew a rebuke from Mayor Tom Barrett, pointed questions from Common Council members and condemnation from the ACLU of Wisconsin.
Milwaukee police have said they don’t use force against peaceful protesters. In at least one of the incidents, police officials cited glass and rocks being thrown before using rubber bullets and tear gas.
Emilio De Torre, community engagement director for the ACLU, urged police departments to “stop using tanks,” “stop using military tactics” and to “divest” from the 1033 program.
“We see Milwaukee Police Department officers in military-seeming gear ... and firing rubber bullets at unarmed demonstrators from what, to a casual observer, looks like a tank,” he said.
Neither the Milwaukee Police Department nor the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department has any armored vehicles obtained through the 1033 program, according to the data. But many nearby police agencies do, including those in Greenfield, Waukesha and West Allis, as well as the Racine County Sheriff’s Office.
Those agencies provided the mineresistant vehicles when assisting the Milwaukee Police Department during protests, Milwaukee Police Lt. Erik Gulbrandson said in an email. The Milwaukee Police Department has two armored vehicles known as BearCats that were deployed during protests, he said.
The 1033 program began in 1990, when the defense department was taking a prominent role in helping detect and monitor illegal drug production and trafficking, according to a 2014 report by the Congressional Research Service.
Congress created the program as a way for the Defense Department to get drug-fighting tools into the hands of state and local law enforcement. Later, the effort — which often provides the surplus equipment for free or for only the cost of shipping or transportation — was expanded to include counterterrorism as a priority.
The 1033 program came under scrutiny during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown after images of police riding on armored personnel carriers and carrying rifles flooded social media.
Then-President Barack Obama issued an executive order restricting access to certain items and banning others, such as grenade launchers and bayonets.
In 2017, President Donald Trump overturned the Obama restrictions through his own executive order, though law enforcement agencies have largely stopped requesting items like grenade launchers and bayonets since. No Wisconsin law enforcement agency has grenade launchers or bayonets through the program, the analysis found.
In the past, law enforcement officials stressed they repurposed that kind of equipment for other uses. For example, they generally used bayonets as utility knives and grenade launchers were used to fire nonlethal chemical irritants or smoke, according to a report in 2018 by the RAND Corporation.
In Wisconsin, law enforcement’s use of armored vehicles prompted controversy in 2014 when Marathon County sheriff’s officials sent an armored vehicle to seize property from an elderly couple in the Town of Stettin.
Wisconsin police agencies possess about $100,000 worth of shields, riot control face shields and nonlethal firing devices obtained through the program, according to the data. Of that equipment, the Milwaukee Police Department has obtained a little over $18,000 worth of shields and riot-control face shields.
Because the Defense Department no longer tracks certain items, such as riot control face shields, after one year in law enforcement possession, the true amount of that equipment given to police in Wisconsin could be higher.
Most of the less-lethal projectiles — such as foam rounds, flash bangs and bean bag rounds — are purchased commercially by police departments, said Charles Mesloh, a weapons expert at Northern Michigan University.
Supporters cite multiple uses
Proponents of the 1033 program have said it saves money and puts taxpayerfunded equipment to good use. Many law enforcement officials also point to the armored vehicles’ use in responding to flood rescues or high-risk situations involving armed or dangerous suspects.
“We call this a rescue vehicle, a defensive vehicle, for a reason,” said Brown County Sheriff Todd Delain. “We had a search warrant to execute a few months ago on a guy we knew was dangerous, we knew was armed, who’d been involved in a shooting. It was a way for us to have some cover.”
Brown, Pierce and Polk counties each have two mine-resistant vehicles, according to the data.
Smaller law enforcement agencies say the program provides them with valuable equipment they otherwise wouldn’t be able to obtain because of the cost.
Twenty-two of the 39 law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin with a mine-resistant vehicle serve populations of less than 50,000 people, including the police departments in Richland Center (population 5,000), Tomah (population 9,000) and (population 14,000).
Juneau County, population 27,000, has a mine-resistant vehicle through the program worth about $658,000. Sheriff Brent Oleson said there was “no way” the department could have otherwise afforded it.
He said the armored vehicle is used to keep deputies and the public safe in life-threatening situations.
“All I want is something that will stop bullets,” he said. “If it’s painted green or a military color, that person that needs help doesn’t care, and I know my officers do care because they’ve got something stopping those bullets.”
In 2014, in the wake of the outcry over Ferguson, a Milwaukee police captain defended the program before a Common Council committee, pointing out that much of the equipment departments receive is not controversial — including office supplies, first aid kits and computers.
Still, not every law enforcement officer is fully behind the program.
In Superior, Police Chief Nick Alexander prompted headlines in 2018 after returning the department’s mineresistant vehicle. He replaced it with a smaller armored truck built for police.
“I see value in the 1033 program in terms of cost savings, but I’m very conscious of not trying to militarize our police,” Alexander said. “We have to have a litmus test of one, do we need it? And two, will it have community support?”
Critics argue the military-grade equipment invites abuse.
“To a man holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” said De Torre of the ACLU.
De Torre found ironic the word “rescue” written on the side of some armored vehicles deployed onto the streets of Milwaukee during recent protests.
“That’s not the instances they’ve been deploying” them in, he said.
Sarah Volpenhein is a Report for America corps reporter who focuses on news of value to underserved communities for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a taxdeductible gift to this reporting effort at JSOnline.com/RFA.
Journal Sentinel reporter Daphne Chen, Green Bay Press-Gazette Reporter Doug Schneider and USA TODAY reporter Nick Penzenstadler contributed to this report.
Whitewater