Feeling heat, school police rethink GI gear

The Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department received a mine resistant, ambush protected vehicle like this one through a federal program.
The Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department received a mine resistant, ambush protected vehicle like this one through a federal program.

LOS ANGELES -- School police departments across the country have taken advantage of free military surplus gear, stocking up on mine-resistant vehicles, grenade launchers and scores of M16 rifles.

At least 26 school districts have participated in the Pentagon's surplus program, which is not new but has come under scrutiny after police responded to protesters in Ferguson, Mo., last month with tear gas, armored military trucks and riot gear.

Nearly two dozen education and civil liberties groups sent a letter earlier this week to the Pentagon and the Justice and Education departments urging a stop to transfers of military weapons to school police. Several school districts now say they'll give some of the equipment back.

The Los Angeles Unified School District -- the nation's second-largest school district, covering 710 square miles and enrolling more than 900,000 students -- said it would remove three grenade launchers it had acquired under the program in 2001 because they "are not essential life-saving items within the scope, duties and mission" of the district's police force.

But the district plans to keep the 60 M16s and a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP, like those used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

District Police Chief Steve Zipperman said the M16s are used for training, and the MRAP, which is parked off campus in a lot, was acquired because the district could not afford to buy armored vehicles that might be used to protect officers and help students during a school shooting.

"That vehicle is used in very extraordinary circumstances involving a life-saving situation for an armed threat," Zipperman said. "Quite frankly, I hope we never have to deploy it."

Law enforcement agencies around the country equipped themselves during leaner budget years by turning to the Pentagon program, which the Defense Department has viewed as a way to get rid of gear it no longer needs. Since a deadly school-shooting rampage in 1999 in Columbine, Colo., school districts increasingly participated.

Federal records show schools in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Texas and Utah obtained surplus military gear. In addition to the Los Angeles school district, at least five other California districts have received equipment, state records show.

In response to police tactics after a white policeman fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, the White House said it would conduct a review of the Pentagon surplus program, and Congress is also planning hearings on it.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that while there's a role for surplus equipment, especially defensive gear, going to local police departments, saying "it's difficult to see what scenario would require a grenade launcher or a mine resistant vehicle for a school police department."

The San Diego Unified School District is painting its MRAP white and hoping to use the Red Cross symbol on it to assuage community worries, said Ursula Kroemer, a district spokesman. The vehicle will be outfitted with medical supplies and teddy bears for use in emergencies to evacuate students and staff, she said.

In Texas, Tina Veal-Gooch, executive director of public relations at Texarkana Independent School District, said the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., led the district to acquire assault rifles. The district has no plans to return the weapons.

Jill Poe, police chief in the Southern California's Baldwin Park school district, said she'll be returning the three M16 rifles acquired under her predecessor.

"Honestly, I could not tell you why we acquired those," Poe said. "They have never been used in the field, and they will never been used in the field. They're locked up in our armory ... I was looking to ship those back because they're never going to be of use to us."

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/18/2014

Upcoming Events