Police units gearing up as paramilitary too much, some say

Police attempt to secure a street after a clash with protesters Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo.  Protests in the St. Louis suburb rocked by racial unrest since a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death turned violent Wednesday night, with people lobbing molotov cocktails at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Police attempt to secure a street after a clash with protesters Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Protests in the St. Louis suburb rocked by racial unrest since a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death turned violent Wednesday night, with people lobbing molotov cocktails at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Correction: The North Little Rock Police Department can account for all the weapons it received from the federal government, according to Sgt. Brian Dedrick, a department spokesman. In addition, the department converts any automatic weapons it receives into semiautomatic and has no intention of arming the robots in its possession. Dedrick responded Monday to an Associated Press article published Saturday about federal military equipment received by police agencies. The article quoted a report by the American Civil Liberties Union that listed concerns over equipment given to North Little Rock police, but the article did not have a response from the agency.

WASHINGTON -- The Missouri police department at the center of an uproar over the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager acquired two armored Humvees and other military gear for free through a Pentagon program that critics blame for aggravating clashes between police and protesters.

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Images of Ferguson police outfitted in paramilitary gear clashing with protesters have increased the efforts of critics who want to rein in surplus equipment programs, such as the one run by the Defense Logistics Agency, which provides assault weapons and other equipment to law enforcement agencies across the country.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said his committee will review the program to determine if the Defense Department surplus is being used as intended.

The program began in 1990 as a way to help states and local agencies fight drug-related crime. It was expanded in the mid-1990s.

"Congress established this program out of real concern that local law enforcement agencies were literally outgunned by drug criminals," Levin said in a statement Friday. "We intended this equipment to keep police officers and their communities safe from heavily armed drug gangs and terrorist incidents."

Since February 2010, more than $9.5 million worth of military surplus equipment has been transferred to law enforcement agencies in Arkansas, according to the website of the Arkansas Law Enforcement Support Office.

Several Arkansas law enforcement agencies have had requests approved to obtain mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs, through surplus programs.

Those agencies -- including the Jacksonville, Little Rock, Benton, Hot Springs, Rogers and Texarkana police departments, and the sheriff's offices in Jefferson, Benton and Pulaski counties -- said the vehicles could save the lives of their officers.

In letters justifying their need for the vehicles, the agencies cited "active shooter" situations and other roles usually involving their Special Weapons and Tactics teams.

"Our intended use of the vehicle is critical incidents, officer and citizen rescues, SWAT incidents (barricade gunman, hostage rescue, search warrants), emergency response, homeland security, natural disaster rescues, terrorism incidents," Jacksonville Police Chief Gary Sipes wrote in his agency's request letter.

But critics say the use of military equipment and tactics can make situations worse.

Police responding to protesters angry about the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown wore riot gear and deployed tear gas, dogs and armored vehicles, sometimes pointing assault rifles at protesters. Critics have blamed that for an escalation of the protests in Ferguson.

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., plans to introduce legislation when Congress returns in September to curb what he describes as the increasing militarization of police across the country.

"Our Main Streets should be a place for business, families and relaxation, not tanks and M16s," Johnson said in a statement. "Militarizing America's Main Streets won't make us any safer, just more fearful and more reticent."

A spokesman for the logistics agency said its Law Enforcement Support Office distributed nearly $450 million worth of equipment last year, ranging from blankets and computers to armored vehicles, boats and assault weapons.

About 8,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide participate in the program, known as 1033 for its section in the National Defense Authorization Act, Michelle McCaskill said.

Weapons account for just 5 percent of the equipment distributed, she said.

St. Louis County, which includes Ferguson, has received a dozen 5.56mm rifles, half a dozen .45-caliber pistols, night-vision goggles and a bomb-disposing robot in recent years, the defense agency said.

The 1033 program is just one of several federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local police. The Homeland Security Department offers grants for armored vehicles and other equipment, while the Justice Department provides grants for rubber bullets, tear gas and other equipment used to control crowds.

Homeland Security grant money paid for the $360,000 Bearcat armored truck on patrol in Ferguson, said Nick Gragnani, executive director of St. Louis Area Regional Response System, which administers such grants for the St. Louis area.

Since 2003, the group has spent $9.4 million on equipment for police in St. Louis County. Most of the body armor worn by officers responding to the Ferguson protests was paid for with federal money, Gragnani said.

Kara Dansky, senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the police response in Ferguson is just the latest example of what she called the excessive militarization of policing. Heavily armed SWAT teams are forcing their way into people's homes across the country, often with little justification, she said.

"Neighborhoods are not war zones, and our police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies," said Dansky, the lead author of a June report on the issue.

Militarization encourages officers to adopt a "warrior" mentality and think of the people they are supposed to serve as enemies, Dansky said.

The ACLU report outlined a number of examples of equipment transfers that it said were cause for concern. For example, police in North Little Rock obtained at least 34 automatic and semi-automatic rifles and two robots capable of being armed. Many of those weapons could not be accounted for later, the report said.

Johnson said his bill would limit the kinds of military equipment that can be transferred to local police and require states to certify that they can account for all equipment received.

He said he is disturbed by reports that some weapons and other equipment distributed to police have vanished. He also expressed concern that the militarization trend has moved beyond local police departments and sheriff's offices, saying Ohio State University recently acquired a MRAP.

"Apparently, college kids are getting too rowdy," Johnson said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a possible GOP presidential contender in 2016, blamed the trend on the federal government.

"Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies -- where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement," Paul wrote in an opinion article in Time magazine.

"There should be a difference between a police response and a military response," Paul said.

Attorney General Eric Holder said he was concerned that use of military equipment by police in Ferguson was sending a "conflicting message."

The response by law enforcement to protests "must seek to reduce tensions, not heighten them," Holder said. The Justice Department and FBI are investigating Brown's death.

Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Daly of The Associated Press and by Noel Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A Section on 08/16/2014