Missing military surplus and the police

I did a story last week on the 1033 program which is the shorthand way to describe the DOD’s program to give military surplus to local police. The entire notion of the police using military grade gear has come under intense criticism in the wake of the Ferguson protests last month. People were shocked to see police in body armor, touting what appeared to be automatic weapons, standing in front of armored cars and lobbing tear gas at unarmed people.

Today, on Yahoo! News, they had a story on departments losing things like rifles, Humvees and what not.

In fact, at least three other police stations have misplaced or been robbed of their government-issued Humvees in the past five years. Weapons turn up missing, too. Yahoo News found that local police departments like Palestine’s have been suspended from the Pentagon 1033 program for misplacing at least 14 M16 assault rifles, 11 M14 assault rifles, 21 pistols and 10 shotguns. These figures don’t come close to representing the total number of weapons that have been stolen or lost over the life of the program, however — a figure the Defense Department has not released.

Is that a horrible number? Given the program has been around for 20-plus years, maybe not. On the other hand, losing a rifle? If you did that in the service, your butt is toast. Heck, if I lost a laptop for work, I’d be grilled. Losing an M14 rifle or an M16… that’s not good. Yet, you are always going to have issues no matter what.

Locally, police here appear to use the program to get items like boats, trucks, gym equipment, barges, ATVs and yes, some assault rifles like the M4, M16 and the M14. I am in the process of looking at each county so the story above is just Tazewell County.

Chief Mike Johnson brought up a good point. Local people can have AR-15s which is the civliian version of the M16 so why can’t cops? And that’s a powerful argument. I think, from my point of view, is that I don’t care if the cops have M16s as long as they know when to use them. Haivng a Bearcat (a police armored car) in the Peoria County SHeriff’s Department isn’t the end of the world.

The vehicle is sparingly and was provided not by the DOD but by ILEAS which is a mutal aid response program in Illinois. That means Peoria County’s armored car is there for any other department; an offer that Peoria Police used last year during a standoff.

Bartonville just picked up a LAV which is a six-wheeled armored vehicle often used by the Marines. Here’s what it looks like in another department (note, it doesn’t have the 25mm cannon anymore).

Bartonville’s LAV is still in the garage and awaiting decals and getting it painted. For comparsion, here’s what a LAV-25 looks like when the Marines are using it.

Andy Kravetz

Author: Andy Kravetz


3 thoughts on “Missing military surplus and the police”

  1. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! How do you ‘loose’ a Humvee? What’s more how does a Department ‘loose’ rifles and pistols? Let’s get right to it – they were ‘appropriated’ by Department personnel. Perhaps this is part of what happened in the City of Washington, Ill awhile back when the Mayor and Council terminated the employment of their Police Chief – thing is, the Chief and the Council all signed “non-disclosure statements” – translation: “You don’t tell on us, and we won’t tell on you.” Further translation: “Transparency, and the Public’s right to know what their Public Officials are doing (with tax dollars) be dammed”.

  2. Why do police departments need these at all? Terroristic threats to Ted Drewes from the radical, anti-dairy fringe? Excessive exercise of First Amendment? Carbon footprint envy?

  3. The 1033 program most definitely needs to be curtailed. The police departments who manage to find money to pay for and maintain this hardware seem to have little incentive to spend money on training their officers- who work for the citizens – on the nuances of constitutional law and judicious marksmanship.

    I’m a lawyer. I’m also a firearms trainer. So I know a little about both. I know there are a lot of cops out there who need remedial firearm training, more so than you might imagine. I’m talking cops-who-cannot-pass-the-basic-concealed-handgun-license-shooting-test that civilians take level of shooting. It’s not just unacceptable; it’s a tragedy waiting to happen.

    Now couple that with videos of cops interacting with citizens, brazenly flaunting their authority and with no regard for the constitutional rights of the taxpayers who pay their salaries, and it’s clear to me that arming cops with MRAPs and other military hardware with little understanding of the legalities of how best to use the equipment is a recipe for disaster.

    Flash bang a toddler, inflicting severe facial burns in the process? “Not our problem.”

    Shoot the family dog while serving a warrant at the wrong house, all while dressed up in battle gear? “Sorry.”

    These are but two of the seemingly dozens of stories that come up each week. Don’t take my word for it. Google it. It won’t take long to read more examples just like this.

    No one is saying “don’t let have cops have AR-15s.” I want law enforcement to have them. I also want them to receive adequate training in the use and in the law. Until they do, however, I think a better use of tax dollars and training time would be to spend it on learning how to do the basics really well – understanding how to use the basic equipment issued to them and how the citizenry has constitutional rights they are charged to protect and uphold.

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