Armored cars and grenade launchers

by David Forbes August 16, 2014

The Asheville Blade and local media are seeking more information on the amount of military equipment in the hands of local law enforcement

Above: An armored car owned by the Asheville Police Department, photographed in 2008. Photo © Jason Sandford, used with permission.

The unrest in Ferguson, Mo. has raised a multitude of important issues, including systemic racism in law enforcement and the level of violence directed at African-American citizens, like the disturbing shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer.

The reaction to peaceful protests — with Ferguson police pointing assault rifles at protesters, arresting journalists and shooting tear gas — also raised national concerns and criticism of how militarized local law enforcement has become, including the question of why small police departments needed such weaponry.

A report in Newsweek highlighted how, since 1996, the 1033 program —intended at the time to both get surplus off the military’s hands and better arm police to fight the “war on drugs” — has transferred billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment into the hands of local law enforcement agencies around the country. The program isn’t the only way local agencies obtain military-style equipment — it’s a frequent use for drug seizure money — but it’s an important one.

On Thursday, Aug. 14, I made records requests with the Asheville Police Department and Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office to disclose all the military equipment obtained under this program over the past decade. The Sheriff’s Office responded within 30 minutes and wrote that they are in the process of gathering the information.

A city spokesperson replied the next morning with a similar response. Later that day, they revealed that the only item the APD had obtained through the 1033 program since 2004 was an armored car in 2007. According to city officials, the vehicle is no longer in use.

On Friday, the New York Times released an interactive map of how much military equipment was dispersed in each county under the 1033 program, something that a number of attentive local observers pointed out. Here’s details on Buncombe, from that map:

Buncombe1033

Notably, these numbers don’t distinguish which state (like the SBI or Highway Patrol) and local agencies in a given county received the equipment. While quite useful, hopefully the records requests will shine further light on how much equipment was obtained by what agencies, when they received it and how much of it is still in use.

This morning Carolina Public Press editor Jon Elliston also highlighted the North Carolina ACLU’s extensive archive of documents concerning the militarization of local police departments, gathered last year. For both the APD and Sheriff’s Office, this includes incident reports and search warrants involving the local SWAT-type teams as well as documents about the general operating rules for those units. In the APD’s case, for example, the documents include annual reports, 2012 records of their weapons and equipment, and the official rules they operate under.

Locally, these units are intended to serve “high-risk warrants” (i.e. when police believe a suspect might be armed or violent), deal with situations where a suspect has barricaded themselves in or provide security for visiting dignitaries, among other roles. They’re frequently used in anti-drug operations.

As more information emerges, we’ll continue to delve into this topic and release more to the public.

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