The federal government has doled out more than $18 billion in surplus military equipment to local police departments over the last five years with little or no oversight.
That’s the conclusion of a new report by the White House---which found that federal agencies are lacking proper guidelines to ensure that the equipment gets safely into the right hands.
Related: 40 Percent of “Used” Military Equipment Given to Police is Brand New
The review focused on several programs including the Defense Department’s 1033 program. The program was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year when images of a militarized police force in Ferguson, Missouri, followed protests after Michael Brown, a black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer. The program, authorized by Congress each year, came under fire for arming small town cops with the same gear used by soldiers in Afghanistan.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The federal government ships billions of dollars worth of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies across the country-without proper tracking and oversight. This leaves not only tax dollars vulnerable to waste and abuse—but it also risks potentially dangerous equipment getting into the wrong hands.
Though Ferguson cast major attention on the 1033 program, previous investigations by the Associated Press and the Daily Beast had raised concerns about oversight. Now the latest report from the White House seems to confirm those very concerns.
The report found that federal departments responsible for doling out their surplus equipment to local police departments don’t have an efficient reporting system to track the equipment they’re giving away, where it’s going and who is receiving it.
This is a huge fiscal problem since the value of the equipment is worth billions and could get into the wrong hands. In some cases, it definitely has.
Related: The Pentagon Equipped Ferguson’s Police Dept.
In one instance, a sheriff in Illinois was suspended for allegedly lending government-issued M-14 rifles to his friends, the Associated Press reported. In another, an Alabama police department, for example, received a $1.5 million piece of surveillance equipment for a helicopter it doesn’t have, instead of the night vision goggles it requested.
The White House report also found that the government has no streamlined guidelines in place to make sure police departments are properly trained to handle the equipment—which, in some cases, could be armored tanks or military assault rifles.
The program has received increasing scrutiny from lawmakers—especially in the wake of the Ferguson protests. Some, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), have even proposed scrapping 1033 entirely. Of course, that’s not likely to happen. Several lobbying groups, including The National Tactical Officers Association, have set out to make sure that it doesn’t.
Related: U.S. Military Scrapping Billions Worth of Gear in Afghanistan
The NTOA, which represents s.w.a.t. teams across the country, sent emails to every member of Congress this week in the wake of the White House report, lobbying them to keep the program, The Daily Beast reported. The group’s main argument is that the overwhelming majority of the equipment transferred to local police departments through the program is “non-tactical” and includes things like rescue boats and body armor.
For his part, President Obama, attempted this week to make reforms to the program without Congress. After the report was released, the president announced that he would be creating a special taskforce to improve the program through executive action in order to make it more transparent.
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