Law-enforcement technologyGeorgia police gets military-grade weapons

Metro Atlanta police departments and sheriff’s offices have recently acquired some new toys which include armored trucks, grenade launchers, and personnel carriers. According to the Georgia Department of Public Safety, $200 million in military equipment and weapons are owned by 600 Georgia law enforcement agencies.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that this military grade equipment has some people  concerned as to why local law enforcement agencies are so heavily armed, but the agencies who have received this equipment say it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Officers “are armed to meet any threat,” so criminals should just stay away, Bloomingdale Police Chief Roy Pike told the  Journal Constitution.

“Having the equipment precludes having to use it,” Pike added. “In the 20 years I’ve been here, we haven’t had to use deadly force against anybody.”

Pike’s department, which includes thirteen officers have acquired a grenade launcher for shooting tear gas, two M14 single-shot semi-automatic rifles and two M16 military-style rifles converted to semi-automatic from automatic, from the so-called 1033 program operated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

The DOD started the 1033 program in the late 1990s to provide state and local law enforcement units around the nation with weapons, helicopters, armored vehicles, body armor, night vision equipment, surveillance equipment, and protective gear. The program also provides .45-caliber handguns and first-aid supplies.

Some law enforcement officials said if their departments had to purchase the weapons they would not, but since the weapons and technology are free, they will find a way to use it. The equipment does not cost taxpayers either, as it  has already paid for through their federal taxes.

That has not stopped some people from thinking the weapons are a bit too much.

“I think military-grade weapons should be restricted to just that, the military. If local police run into a situation where someone is using those types of weapons, then call in the National Guard,” LaShanda Hardin told AJC.

Tim Lynch, the director of the Cato institute, believes the program should be shut down.

“When this equipment is given away, police departments start saying, ‘Let’s grab it.’ ” And once the equipment is in the hands of law enforcement, “we have militarized units going into the community in situations where they aren’t warranted,” Lynch told AJC.

“This is one of the most alarming trends in American policing,” Lynch continued. “We used to call them peace officers and they would treat people … with more respect and civility. We’re getting away from that. We’re getting into these military tactics and mindset that the people they (police) come into contact with are the enemy … and part of this is the militarized units in police departments.”

According to state records, the DOD has valued armored personnel carriers at around $245,000 each and an armored truck at nearly $65,000 each. According to the departments that have this equipment, it saves lives.

“It gives the … SWAT guys a protection to where they can get closer to the folks shooting at them,” Don Sherrod, director of excess property for the Georgia Department of Public Safety, which oversees the program for the DOD told AJC. “When you pull up in something … and the bullets start bouncing off, they (criminals) give up.”

Cobb County Police Department SWAT uses its two armored vehicles to extricate people from a “hot zone” or to get officers closer to a “volatile situation.”

Captain Craig Dodson of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office told AJC that some of the equipment including the grenade launchers and assault rifle, have yet to be used, but are held in case a situation occurs where the equipment is needed.

“Our goal is to try to equip every patrolman in the law enforcement division with a rifle,” Dodson stated.

“The M16 … gives you more capability to penetrate body armor or to make long-distance shots if you are not able to get closer. … It’s a safety blanket. We ask people to go out and do a job, and we want to give them the tools to be safe and do the job.”