Return of Military-Style Equipment by Police Departments Since 1990, local police and sheriff departments have received about $5 billion worth of surplus military equipment. The justification for...

Return of Military-Style Equipment by Police Departments

Since 1990, local police and sheriff departments have received about $5 billion worth of surplus military equipment. The justification for transferring the equipment, ranging from flashlights to machine guns to armored-tracked vehicles, is that local police are the first line of defense as part of a broader counterterrorism strategy. However, in the aftermath of the police response to protests following the shooting of an unarmed Black male in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, critics argued that the military equipment was unnecessary and misused. They argued that over-militarization of the police promoted the unnecessary use of force. In 2015, President Obama stopped the transfer of certain types of military equipment, including armored vehicles that run on tracks, .50-caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, bayonets, and camouflage clothing. Police officials protested that the president had a “naïve view of law enforcement.”9 They acknowledged that some department may have misused the equipment, but that it was unfair to punish all departments as the equipment was essential to many police operations.10 For example, police officials argued that armored vehicles were essential for safety in responding to active-shooter situations such as the San Bernardino terrorist attack. Does the return of military-style equipment help ease what President Obama called, “a simmering distrust between police departments and people of color?”