Are police overgunned?
Police receive equipment under 1033 Program
Protests over police brutality have put the flow of equipment from the military to police agencies under the spotlight.
Under the 1033 Program, local law enforcement agencies have obtained nearly half a billion dollars of surplus military gear since August 2017, when President Donald Trump lifted restrictions, an analysis found. According to the analysis, agencies largely gave up controversial items, but police have increasingly obtained other militarygrade equipment such as riot gear and heavily armored vehicles. Such equipment has been spotted during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
With protests over police brutality leading to calls for broad law enforcement reform, a decades-old Department of Defense program is facing renewed pressure from Congress to stem the flow of military equipment to police.
Local law enforcement agencies have obtained nearly half a billion dollars of surplus military equipment under the so-called 1033 Program since August 2017, when President Donald Trump lifted restrictions imposed by the Obama administration, a USA TODAY/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis found.
Because the Department of Defense does not report items that police obtained but later decommissioned or returned, the true amount of military equipment given to police since 2017 is probably even higher.
Local law enforcement agencies have received almost $454 million in surplus military equipment since Trump lifted restrictions on the 1033 Program. This is about the same amount law enforcement received while the Obama administration’s restrictions were in place.
Using federal data, the analysis found that law enforcement agencies largely gave up controversial items like grenade launchers and bayonets, previously prohibited under the Obama administration. However, police have increasingly obtained other militarygrade equipment such as riot gear and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected veProponents hicles, the hulking, heavily-armored vehicles designed to withstand explosive blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Such equipment has been spotted in Minneapolis and Spokane.
According to the latest federal data, local police agencies now possess nearly 1,100 MRAPs through the program, nearly double the number in 2014, when protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, another unarmed Black man, put the program under a microscope.
Legislation unveiled last week by House and Senate Democrats would go further than Obama’s executive order. Certain firearms, ammunition, grenade launchers, bayonets, mine-resistant vehicles, drones, silencers and long-range acoustic devices (LRADs) used to deter riots would be prohibited.
of the 1033 Program have said it provides tremendous costsaving and puts taxpayer-funded equipment to good use. The nation’s largest police union has said it opposes further restrictions. Police agencies possess about $10.5 million worth of riot gear and so-called “non-lethal” weapons, such as pepper spray, through the program.
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who served in Iraq with the Marines, said local municipalities should have to justify to residents why police agencies need surplus military gear.
“It’s ridiculous that every small town in America thinks they need an MRAP because one is available,” Gallego said.