Law enforcement technologyObama orders review of transferring military gear to local police

President Barack Obama has announced a review of federal programs that transfer surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies. The review will decide whether the programs are needed, if agencies are properly trained to work with the military grade equipment they receive, and whether the federal government is effectively keeping track of the equipment and their use.

The 9 August incident in which a Ferguson, Missouri police officer shot and killed an unarmed eighteen-year-old Michael Brown, followed by local police’s use of automatic rifles and armored military vehicles to control crowds, might have prompted the review. It is not the first time, however, that questions have been raised about the equipment transfer program. Fox News reports that an APinvestigation found that a large share of the $4.2 billion in surplus military equipment distributed through the 24-year-old program went to law enforcement departments in rural areas with few officers and little crime.

The program was created by Congress in 1990 to help cities fight the war on drugs. The Defense Logistics Agency took control of the program in 1997. As the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winds down, transfers of military equipment to local sheriff and police departments have increased.

“We don’t push equipment on anybody,” said Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Defense Department’s chief spokesman. “This is excess equipment the taxpayers have paid for and we’re not using anymore. And it is made available to law enforcement agencies, if they want it and if they qualify for it. … Just because they ask for a helicopter doesn’t mean that they get a helicopter.”

Representative Hank Johnson (D-Georgia), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wants to introduce legislation to limit the transfer program when Congress resumes following August recess. “Militarizing America’s Main Streets won’t make us any safer, just more fearful and more reticent,” he said last Thursday.

Obama’s review will be led by key White House staff from the Domestic Policy Council, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and U.S. agencies including departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and Treasury, in coordination with Congress. “I think it’s probably useful for us to review how the funding has gone, how local law enforcement has used grant dollars, to make sure that what they’re purchasing is stuff that they actually need, because there is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement and we don’t want those lines blurred,” Obama said. “And I think that there will be some bipartisan interest in reexamining some of those programs.”