Walking into a U.S. Senate hearing on Sept. 9, St. Louis American photojournalist Wiley Price could tell one thing right away. Although it was a bipartisan hearing to discuss local law enforcement’s use of military equipment, it definitely didn’t feel bipartisan, he said.
“Every senator was of the same accord, and that is: it seems as though local police have too much military power,” said Price, who testified as an eyewitness to St. Louis County Police Department’s use of military equipment during the protests in Ferguson.
“Is it really needed? And what situation would require you to use this kind weaponry on your citizens? Those questions pretty much went unanswered.”
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) invited Price to testify about his experience covering the protests in Ferguson, which began after a police officer shot and killed the unarmed black teen Michael Brown on August 9.
After watching police intimidate and rough up peaceful protesters, McCaskill approached U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Senate committee, to hold a hearing on the sale of Department of Defense weapons and equipment to state and local police forces.
“Like many of you, I saw armored vehicles with a sniper pointing a rifle at unarmed protesters in the middle of the day,” McCaskill said at the hearing. “I was shocked to see the way that the police were deploying this military equipment against residents of Missouri who were exercising their first amendment rights.”
At the hearing, McCaskill said the federal government has played a significant role in enabling police departments across the country to acquire the military weapons, vehicles, and other types of equipment that were used in Ferguson.
The Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which was authorized in its current form in 1997, gives away the department’s surplus equipment – for free – to state and local law enforcement. Much of the equipment from the program is “as mundane as office furniture and microwaves,” she said. But the department is also giving local law enforcement million-dollar tactical vehicles, including its Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicle (M-RAPs) – a heavy-armored vehicle built to withstand roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices.
“These are vehicles so heavy that they can tear up roads, and DOD knows this,” she said of M-RAPs. “Yet it continues to provide these vehicles to local law enforcement agencies here.”
In just the last three years, the Department of Defense has given 624 M-RAPs to state and local law enforcement agencies, according to information the department provided to McCaskill. At least 13 law enforcement agencies with fewer than 10 full-time sworn officers received an M-RAP in the last three years.
In fact, many local police and sheriffs’ departments now own more M-RAPs than the National Guard. In Texas, for example, local law enforcement agencies have 73 M-RAPs; the National Guard has six. In Florida, local law enforcement agencies have 45 M-RAPs and the National Guard has none.
“One of the key lessons learned throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was the idea that we had to win hearts and minds, and one of the ways the military tried to do that was by acting more like a police force – working with communities, helping to repair broken windows and damaged property and trying to appear less militaristic with their presence in the communities,” McCaskill said. “It is ironic that the Defense Department’s policies are now fostering the opposite mentality at home.”
McCaskill also asked why the defense department is giving the equipment away. According to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), approximately 36 percent of the equipment that is given away to these agencies is brand new. All of it – the weapons, tactical equipment and office supplies – is still usable, and identical or similar items will be needed and bought new by the defense department again, she said.
Not only are local law enforcement agencies getting the military-type equipment for a discounted rate, they are also acquiring the equipment by using grants from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. In fiscal year 2014, DHS made available over $400 million under its State Homeland Security Program and another $587 million under its Urban Area Security Initiative Grant Program.
Although these grants can’t be used to buy weapons, she said they can and do fund the purchase of armored vehicles, nonlethal weapons and tactical equipment. And the Department of Justice’s Byrne JAG Program, which received $376 million in appropriations in FY14, gives state and local law enforcement agencies funding that can be used for everything from mobile data terminals and lethal and non-lethal weapons, to office supplies and uniforms.
“It is impossible to tell how these federal funds are being spent because DHS and DOJ don’t track the purchases or keep adequate data,” McCaskill said. “So we can’t know, just from asking these agencies, how much military equipment – or anything else – local law enforcement agencies are buying.”
In an interview with The St. Louis American, McCaskill she expects more oversight and legislative changes to occur before the year is over. She has met with the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee, Barbara Mikulski, and she agrees that changes that need to occur. She also looks forward to seeing the results of White House’s own review of the programs and policies that have driven police militarization.
McCaskill said she felt Price was an important addition to the hearing.
“There is no better observer than a photojournalist,” she said. “I knew he was on the ground and a witnessed a great deal that had gone on through the lens of his camera.”
Price told the committee that the police’s “show of military might” in Ferguson only escalated the citizen’s strong feelings. These are people who already feel disrespected and frustrated by local law enforcement on a daily basis, he said.
“Most believe that if we can spend this kind of money on weapons, why not use those same resources to better train them for community policing and train them on how to best resolve conflict,” Price testified.
The citizens saw armored vehicles that they normally only see on the national news during conflicts in Middle East war zones, he said.
“Most Americans would not be so shocked if this were a response to an overt terrorist attack on an American city,” Price said, “but not during a spontaneous protest over the shooting of a young African-American male by a white police officer while walking in the street in the middle of the day.”
