Growing Unease Over Departments' Use Of Vehicles and Gear Designed for Battle
ByJennifer Levitz WSJ
High Springs, Fla., police officer James Field exits an MRAP—an armored, mine-resistant ambush-protected military vehicle—now owned by his department. Gainesville Sun /Landov
Residents in some towns have begun standing up to the large armored vehicles that local police departments are receiving from the federal government.
Six-figure grants from the Department of Homeland Security have been funding BearCats and other heavily fortified vehicles in towns and cities nationwide since soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Beginning last summer, the government also has handed out 200 surplus vehicles built to withstand mines and bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is considering requests from 750 more communities.
Most police and citizens welcome the extra protection, saying recent mass shootings show any local force could find itself facing an extremely violent or dangerous situation. But antipathy has grown in some pockets of the country—from New York to Ohio to California—which see the machines as symbols of government waste and a militarization of law enforcement, including the growth of SWAT teams and high-tech gadgets in recent decades.
A Lenco BearCat that the Manchester, N.H., Police Department has owned since 2007. Thomas Roy/New Hampshire Union Leader
In libertarian-leaning New Hampshire, a state lawmaker just introduced a bill that would ban municipalities from accepting military-style vehicles without approval from voters. That came in response to the Concord City Council's vote in the fall to accept a $258,000 federal grant to buy a BearCat, despite intense opposition from citizens who submitted a 1,500-signature petition and rallied outside City Hall holding signs that said, "More Mayberry, Less Fallujah" and "Thanks But No Tanks!"
"This seems over the top and unnecessary to have this level of armament," said the bill's sponsor, Republican state Rep. J.R. Hoell. He said police in 11 communities in New Hampshire now have armored vehicles.
The Facebook FB +3.47% page of the Salinas, Calif., police department drew torrents of complaints after the force recently got an armored vehicle from the military surplus program. "When did Salinas turn into a battlefield?" a citizen wrote in December. "I feel the Constitution shredding under my feet."
Peter Kraska, a professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, believes recent revelations about federal surveillance programs are helping drive the discomfort with outfitting police departments like the military. The armored vehicles are "a pretty visual example of overreach," he said. He also noted that the passage of time since the 2001 attacks may have eased worries about terrorist events.
Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright countered that the armored vehicles help not only in active-shooter situations but in natural disasters. He said there has been "vigorous interest" from local police in the 11,000 mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) trucks that the Pentagon is giving away in the U.S. The trucks cost between $400,000 and $700,000 new and are free to communities, though local police have to pay to transport the vehicles and to maintain them so they will be ready whenever they are needed.
DHS allocated nearly $1 billion for grants to states and local governments in fiscal year 2010 to protect against potential terrorist attacks, with $6 million going to armored vehicles, the most recent figures available for spending on the vehicles. The overall grant program has drawn criticism from federal budget hawks.
In 2012, Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) complained that more than $35 billion had been spent since 2003, some of it on "questionable items." He specifically criticized "tank-like" BearCats for local police, noting that the grant application from one small New Hampshire town cited "protecting the town's annual pumpkin festival" as a reason why the armored truck was needed.
Lenco Armored Vehicles., the Pittsfield, Mass., maker of the BearCat, the armored vehicle most popular with law enforcement, distributes about 100 of them a year to local police departments, many of them federal-grant recipients, said Lenco President Len Light. Typically, police visit the company to learn the technical aspects of the vehicles, which are mostly used by specialized tactical teams.
He said police officials want the vehicles in part because they know they will face questions if they are unprepared for a major event. "They're in a rough spot," he said.
Amid tough competition for federal grants, some departments are raising money or finding other ways to pay for the BearCats, Mr. Light said. In Southern California, the Simi Valley Police Department put its BearCat to use just two days after it acquired the vehicle with $280,000 in drug-forfeiture funds in December, said Commander Stephanie Shannon.
After an armed suicidal man barricaded himself in a car at a local park, officers used the BearCat to get close to the car and detain the man, she said.
A federal MRAP gift didn't sit well with everyone in upstate New York's Jefferson County. After winning a tense 8-6 vote by county legislators in October, the local sheriff took possession of a 44,000-pound, 14-foot high MRAP that can stop a .50-caliber round. "It's militarizing the police force," said Scott Gray, a Republican county legislator and opponent, who said the issue was the testiest one he could recall in his 13 years in his post.
He believes the presence of the trucks alone could inflame tense situations, and there is a potential for injuries if police rolled the vehicle through a crowd. Mr. Kraska, the Eastern Kentucky professor who follows the debate nationally, said he wasn't aware of any citizens being injured.
Jefferson County Sheriff John Burns said the vehicle hasn't been used, but it gives him some peace of mind. Thirty years ago, he rarely saw standoffs or hostage situations, but they now happen fairly regularly, a trend he attributes to population growth. "I agree it's big, it's intimidating, but again, it's going to save lives," he predicted.
Write to Jennifer Levitz at jennifer.levitz@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...66963588434656
No comments:
Post a Comment