Local Cops Ready for War With Homeland Security-Funded Military Weapons
A decade of billions in spending in the name of homeland security
has armed local police departments with military-style equipment and a
new commando mentality. But has it gone too far? Andrew Becker and G.W.
Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting report.
Nestled
amid plains so flat the locals joke you can watch your dog run away for
miles, Fargo treasures its placid lifestyle, seldom pierced by the
mayhem and violence common in other urban communities. North Dakota’s
largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005,
and there’s not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the
last decade.
But
that hasn’t stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county
from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the
sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.
Every
city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle,
and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from
battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation—if it
ever occurs—officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck,
complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is
used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic,
where it’s been parked near the children’s bounce house.
“Most
people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here,” says
Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North
Dakota State University. “There’s no terrorism here.”
Like
Fargo, thousands of other local police departments nationwide have been
amassing stockpiles of military-style equipment in the name of homeland
security, aided by more than $34 billion in federal grants since the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Daily Beast investigation conducted
by the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
The
buying spree has transformed local police departments into small,
army-like forces, and put intimidating equipment into the hands of
civilian officers. And that is raising questions about whether the
strategy has gone too far, creating a culture and capability that
jeopardizes public safety and civil rights while creating an expensive
false sense of security.
“The
argument for up-armoring is always based on the least likely of
terrorist scenarios,” says Mark Randol, a former terrorism expert at the
Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of
Congress. “Anyone can get a gun and shoot up stuff. No amount of SWAT
equipment can stop that.”
Local
police bristle at the suggestion that they’ve become “militarized,”
arguing the upgrade in firepower and other equipment is necessary to
combat criminals with more lethal capabilities. They point to the 1997
Los Angeles-area bank robbers who pinned police for hours with assault
weapons, the gun-wielding student who perpetrated the Virginia Tech
massacre in 2007, and the terrorists who waged a bloody rampage in Mumbai, India, that left 164 people dead and 300 wounded in 2008.
The
new weaponry and battle gear, they insist, helps save lives in the face
of such threats. “I don’t see us as militarizing police; I see us as
keeping abreast with society,” former Los Angeles Police chief William
Bratton says. “And we are a gun-crazy society.”
“I don’t see us as militarizing police; I see us as keeping abreast with society.”
Adds
Fargo Police Lt. Ross Renner, who commands the regional SWAT team:
“It’s foolish to not be cognizant of the threats out there, whether it’s
New York, Los Angeles, or Fargo. Our residents have the right to be
protected. We don’t have everyday threats here when it comes to
terrorism, but we are asked to be prepared.”
The
skepticism about the Homeland spending spree is less severe for
Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and New York, which are presumed to be
likelier targets. But questions persist about whether money was handed
out elsewhere with any regard for risk assessment or need. And the gap
in accounting for the decade-long spending spree is undeniable. The U.S.
Homeland Security Department says it doesn’t closely track what’s been
bought with its tax dollars or how the equipment is used. State and
local governments don’t maintain uniform records either.
To
assess the changes in law enforcement for The Daily Beast, the Center
for Investigative Reporting conducted interviews and reviewed grant
spending records obtained through open records requests in 41 states.
The probe found stockpiles of weaponry and military-style protective
equipment worthy of a defense contractor’s sales catalog.
In
Montgomery County, Texas, the sheriff’s department owns a $300,000
pilotless surveillance drone, like those used to hunt down al Qaeda
terrorists in the remote tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In
Augusta, Maine, with fewer than 20,000 people and where an officer
hasn’t died from gunfire in the line of duty in more than 125 years,
police bought eight $1,500 tactical vests. Police in Des Moines, Iowa,
bought two $180,000 bomb-disarming robots, while an Arizona sheriff is
now the proud owner of a surplus Army tank.
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