Little restraint, oversight in military giveaways
The Associated Press
MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Published: July 31, 2013
MORVEN, Ga. — Small-town police departments across the country have been gobbling up tons of equipment discarded by a downsizing military - bicycles, bed sheets, bowling pins, French horns, dog collars, even a colonoscopy machine - regardless of whether the items are needed or will ever be used.
In the tiny farming community of Morven, Ga., the police chief has grabbed three boats, scuba gear, rescue rafts and a couple of dozen life preservers. The town's deepest body of water: an ankle-deep creek.
An Associated Press investigation of the Defense Department program, originally aimed at helping local law enforcement fight terrorism and drug trafficking, found that a disproportionate share of the $4.2 billion worth of property distributed since 1990 has been obtained by police departments and sheriff's offices in rural areas with few officers and little crime.
The national giveaway program operates with scant oversight, and the surplus military gear often sits in storage, the AP found.
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