Items recommended to be banned from free Pentagon surplus program to local law enforcement
- Armored vehicles that run on tracks instead of wheels
- Weaponized aircraft, vessels or vehicles
- Firearms of .50 caliber or higher
- Ammunition of .50 caliber or higher
- Grenade launchers
- Bayonets
- Camouflage uniforms
(Source: The White House)
Grenade launchers, bayonets and tank-like vehicles are out.
But Georgia law enforcement agencies can still pick up riot shields, flash-bang grenades, armored vehicle helicopters and Humvees from the military, as long as they can justify why they would need them.
The new restrictions on military surplus for state and local police departments were part of a policing initiative announced Monday by President Barack Obama in response to the police-community strife in Ferguson, Mo., and across the nation over the past year.
“We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like there’s an occupying force, as opposed to a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them,” Obama said in announcing the initiative in Camden, N.J.
The recommendations would prevent the Pentagon from giving away seven types of equipment, including camouflage uniforms and weaponized aircraft. An additional 12 types of equipment — riot gear, battering rams and “specialty firearms” among them — were deemed useful for local law enforcement, but departments would have to justify the equipment’s use and go through training.
A police raid last year in Habersham County became part of the national conversation on police militarization when a toddler was severely injured by a "flash-bang" grenade that landed in his bed. Last month, Habersham County reached a nearly $1 million settlement with the family of Bounkham "Baby Bou Bou" Phonesavanh.
Mawuli Davis, the family’s attorney, said the move by the Obama administration to tighten restrictions on military equipment is “a step in the right direction.”
“It has been our position that the over-militarization of police forces throughout the country has led to some very tragic consequences, including that of Baby Bou Bou,” Davis said. “We continue to remind people that these are our communities, these are our homes. We should not feel that the police are an occupying force in our homes.”
According to data kept by the U.S. Department of Defense, Georgia law enforcement agencies have received more than $70 million in decommissioned military gear, most of it coming in the last three years. The list includes 420 vehicles valued at $29 million that in the future would be either be prohibited or more tightly controlled.
Many local departments depend on the military surplus program for gear they could not otherwise afford; the departments pay only shipping costs. And some don’t like the new regulations, which are set to kick in Oct. 1.
“I don’t know what he wants us to do, man,” Carroll County sheriff’s department Cpl. Chad Sheriff said of Obama. “I guess just let people burn stuff down. Those cops in Baltimore, they just looked pitiful.”
Carroll County received grenade launchers from the federal government in 2007. They were used to launch tear gas canisters. But about six months ago, Sheriff said, the department turned them back to the Army to be destroyed because “we got tired of the media heat on them.”
He said Carroll County is looking to buy grenade launchers with its own money, rather than taking the federal handouts, which would be allowed under the new regulations.
The Cartersville Police Department received a $245,000 armored personnel carrier from the Defense Department nearly five years ago. Apart from routine maintenance and some training, it hasn’t moved since.
“If we ever need it, it’s there,” said Police Chief Thomas Culpepper.
Culpepper said his department applied for the vehicle to use during natural disasters when roads might not be passable or when officers might need to serve a warrant on a “highly violent” suspect. Neither has happened, so he is not stressed about the new restrictions on military gear.
“Frankly, I don’t think it will hurt us specifically. In general, I don’t think it will have as big an impact on law enforcement as people might say,” he said. “Not having access to armored vehicles and fighter planes and heavy machine guns? I don’t see a problem with that because they don’t have much use in the police realm.”
Jones County Sheriff R.N. “Butch” Reece said he expects the new rules will hurt small departments. Reece’s office has received more than $1 million in surplus gear, most of it in the last year or so.
The list includes four Humvees, a mine-resistant vehicle, night scopes and body armor, but also sleeping bags and computers.
Reece said even the tactical vehicles have peaceful uses. During last year’s ice storms, Reece said the Humvees were put to work clearing blocked roads.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Lithonia Democrat, had been pushing for limits on the military surplus program well before last year’s Ferguson unrest thrust the issue into the headlines. He cheered Obama’s move.
“I’m going to continue fighting to see these and other ideas passed into law and made permanent,” Johnson said in a statement.
In addition, Obama's task force recommended more body cameras for police officers and the White House launched a data initiative in the Atlanta Police Department and 20 other departments around the country.
The departments will release more data to the public on topics like officer-involved shootings and traffic stops. They will also work with the White House to improve their data systems.
