Military hardware still flowing to local police after Ferguson

Pentagon program outfitting jurisdictions remains popular

The federal government shipped nearly 4,000 more assault rifles to local law enforcement agencies in the three months following the Ferguson riots, marking a huge surge in the amount of lethal firearms being doled out to police and sheriff’s offices.

The Ferguson riots drew attention and criticism to the massive firepower state and local police are now able to bring to bear on their citizens, and earned scrutiny for the Pentagon project, known as the 1033 program, that helps arm many of those agencies by making surplus military equipment available to them.

President Obama called for a review of the program, civil rights advocates said the local police had become indistinguishable from the military, and even some police departments questioned their own policies.

But a Washington Times analysis of the first three months after the riots shows the program remains popular with law enforcement agencies throughout the country, though there have been some changes in the types of equipment that are now being offered.

The 3,879 rifles the Pentagon shipped was an astronomical increase over the dozen rifles shipped during the same three-month period in 2013, with several police agencies taking delivery of hundreds of rifles soon after the Ferguson riots.

Armored vehicles, which drew particular scrutiny in the riots in Ferguson and other cities, were less popular in the aftermath. The Pentagon shipped just 11 mine-resistant vehicles, or MRAPs, from Aug. 15 through Nov. 14, compared to nearly 180 in the same time period a year earlier.

Including both lethal equipment and the more mundane items such as uniforms and office supplies that make up most of the transfers, the overall number was about the same in 2014, though the dollar value of the equipment transferred — about $157 million over the three months — was down 15 percent.

In early December Mr. Obama said he would tighten standards for getting military equipment, including requiring civilian officials to authorize transfers so police aren’t acting on their own. But he did not cancel the program, nor did he ban the flow of lethal weaponry, as some lawmakers on Capitol Hill have demanded.

The furor on Capitol Hill, which erupted in August and sparked congressional hearings, has also quieted. Bills introduced in the heat of the riots will quietly die when this Congress shuts its doors in early January and a new Congress is sworn in.

Copyright © 2014 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.