Protesters mobilizing across the country against racism and excessive force by police have been countered by law enforcement officers more heavily armed than ever. Over the past two decades, many police departments have legally acquired guns and vehicles intended for military use in wartime combat. But the massive nationwide protests have made apparent how police can use this equipment against U.S. citizens in large cities and small towns alike.
Three federal programs have allowed local and state law enforcement to arm itself with military equipment. Since 1997, the Defense Department has transferred excess or unused equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies. Departments have acquired more than $7 billion worth of guns, helicopters, armored vehicles and ammunition under the program.
The transfers were limited under the Obama administration but re-expanded under President Donald Trump in 2017. Now Congress is considering reining it in again. On Monday a bipartisan group of senators announced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would again limit the types of items the Defense Department can transfer to law enforcement.
But that effort, if successful, is unlikely to touch an even bigger source of advanced weapons accessible to civilian police. Two Department of Homeland Security initiatives established in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks have given state and local law enforcement agencies billions more to buy equipment without the rules and restrictions of the Defense Department program.
Since 2003, states and metro areas have received $24.3 billion from two DHS grant programs, which have little oversight. The State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) and the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) were intended to provide local agencies with tools necessary to combat terrorism, and have been used for projects ranging from increasing surveillance to securing water treatment facilities. Of the few rules attached to the money, one requires that at least 25% of those funds be put toward law-enforcement terrorism-prevention activities, though states regularly exceed that.
After the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri—spurred by the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black teenager by a police officer—testimony at a Senate hearing on the militarized police response identified $9.4 million worth of equipment bought in St. Louis County with DHS preparedness funds. During the hearing, a DHS grant administrator acknowledged that neither the DHS nor the state could determine with certainty if any DHS-funded equipment was used during the protests.
In 2020, the DHS plans to give $1.03 billion to state, local and tribal agencies through these programs, a $25 million increase over the year before.
The Defense Department program provides excess military equipment to law enforcement agencies for only the cost of shipping and maintenance. This makes it possible for even smaller departments to possess sometimes exorbitantly expensive items like mine-resistant vehicles or aircraft.
But the available data are imperfect. Each item’s value is listed at the price it was acquired at, which may be outdated. The data provide no context on how police use the equipment, and non-controlled items like office supplies aren’t counted after the first year.
Researchers debate that the military equipment can shift the culture and organization of police departments to behave more aggressively. Some studies have found that increased requests for the equipment led to more people being killed by police, as well as more violence against police officers. Others have found little impact on police aggression.
Researchers have also found that seeing militarized police in the news can diminish police reputation. And use of excessive force by law enforcement in initial protests only appeared to have turned more people out to demonstrations against police brutality.
Among all the items the police have either bought with grant money or received through the Section 1033 program, helicopters, mine-resistant vehicles and military-style weapons have been some of the most visible additions to law enforcement arsenals. Data for how departments spend DHS money is limited, but here’s where the Defense Department has distributed items around the country.
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