Why do police departments get military equipment?

How and why local police departments get military surplus equipment
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper
Published: August 24, 2014

WASHINGTON — After seeing TV footage of the police in Ferguson, Mo., deploying Humvees and brandishing assault rifles in the face of protesters, some Americans are questioning whether local law enforcement agencies should be allowed to acquire military equipment from the Pentagon. A congressional review has been scheduled, with the president’s backing.

But few understand how the Defense Department’s 1033 Program actually works. Even Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel had to ask his staffers this week to explain it to him.

The ongoing controversy raises important questions: Why does the program exist? Why do many police officers believe they need military-grade equipment? And what safeguards are in place to ensure that weapons and vehicles designed for combat zones are used responsibly in towns like Ferguson?

How it came to be

The 1033 Program was an invention of Congress, not the Pentagon. It came into being through the 1990-1991 National Defense Authorization Act, and the program’s original scope was much narrower than it is today. As the federal government’s “war on drugs” escalated, the 1990-1991 NDAA authorized the transfer of excess DOD property to federal and state agencies for use in counterdrug activities. A few years later, the program was broadened considerably to include materiel that could be used for “the execution of law enforcement activities,” to include counterdrug and counterterrorism missions, according to DOD.

The theory behind the initiative was that the military’s unneeded equipment might as well be put to good use, rather than be destroyed or warehoused.
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