In 1997, Congress codified the federal 1033 program to transfer surplus equipment from the military to civilian law enforcement agencies for domestic counter-drug and counter-terrorism activities.
“As of June 2020,” according to the Defense Logistics Agency , “there are around 8,200 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies from 49 states and four U.S. territories participating in the program.” Sometimes there is bidding for equipment, though the 1033 program allows the DoD to transfer the excess military equipment to local law enforcement free of charge .
Dean Esserman, senior counselor at the National Police Foundation and a former police chief of police departments in Connecticut and Rhode Island, said that he found the program useful. Police departments in several states received particularly expensive items. The California Highway Patrol received what appeared to be a drone worth $22 million in 2016. The Howell Township Police Department in New Jersey received an MRAP worth $865,000 in 2016. An MRAP provided to the Payne County Sheriff Office in Stillwater, Oklahoma, cost $1.3 million.
The police department in Kirklin, Indiana, also received a Humvee stripped of communication equipment, and retired police chief John Faucett explained that the vehicle was mostly for rescues and “the communication box was used for storage.” “We’re not the military, we’re not the army,” said Esserman, who did not receive such equipment at the police department he oversaw. “I’m sure there was a department that took advantage of it, and over-militarized, which is a shame.”
“This is typically stuff that they weren't buying on their own — they wouldn't consider it a budget priority,” Cato Institute Senior Fellow Walter Olson told Yahoo Finance’s YFi PM . But “once you've got the gear, the temptation is to use it... we have seen the results — we have seen armored vehicles... we've seen grenade launchers, helicopters that turn protests into something closer to a war zone.
“DLA’s internal controls processes for this program were really broken,” GAO’s Zina Merritt, who co-authored the report, said on a podcast done by the agency.
Next time somebody is breaking into your house, call ANTIFA.