President Barack Obama recently ordered a review of the transfer of military weapons to police, and Attorney General Eric Holder said he was “deeply concerned” about the law enforcement response. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) plans to hold a congressional hearing on the issue on Tuesday. Defense and Justice Department officials, law enforcement representatives and reform advocates are expected to testify, and the draft witness list also includes a photojournalist from the St. Louis American newspaper.
Any campaign for less militarized and more heavily regulated law enforcement across the country faces a challenge against a deep set of entrenched interests that includes the unions and lobbying groups representing police offices, the Pentagon and defense establishment and lawmakers at all levels of government who are still wary of being seen as soft on crime.
Federal grants have helped local and state police departments obtain more than $34 billion worth of military-style gear since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Center for Investigative Reporting estimated in 2011. And the Pentagon’s 1033 program specifically has transferred more than $4.3 billion in free gear to police since its inception in 1997.
Those gear buys include mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, for cities like tiny Watertown, Connecticut, or grenade launchers for the police in Bloomington, Georgia. Once states join the program, law enforcement officials from all over can browse a government website for available gear and apply to get the gear free.
Mayors, city councils and county legislators love the dollars that come from Washington in the form of used Pentagon equipment and federal grants and have worked to keep everything flowing. More than 30 law enforcement unions or police departments spent more than $2.1 million lobbying Congress and the administration last year and employed about 60 lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Pentagon and the defense industry provide millions of dollars in free and surplus military gear — giving the military brass a say in the future of the program.
