APNewsBreak: Pentagon halts free guns for police
Source: Associated Press
The Defense Department has stopped issuing weapons to thousands of law enforcement agencies until it is satisfied that state officials can account for all the surplus guns, aircraft, Humvees and armored personnel carriers it has given police under a $2.6 billion program, The Associated Press has learned.
The department's Defense Logistics Agency ordered state-appointed coordinators in 49 states to certify the whereabouts of that equipment that has already been distributed through the long-running arrangement overseen by the agency's Law Enforcement Support Office. The temporary halt on transferring weapons applies to all states, agency officials said Thursday.
The program provides police departments and other law enforcement agencies with military equipment ranging from guns and helicopters to computers and air conditioners and even toilet paper. The equipment is cheap or free for law enforcement agencies to acquire, but much of it comes with strict rules that prohibit it from being sold and dictate how it must be tracked.
The military decided to conduct a "one-time, clean sweep" of all state inventories instead of reviewing them piecemeal, said Kenneth MacNevin, a spokesman for the federal agency. While some gear, including guns, has been stolen or otherwise gone missing over the years, MacNevin said the reporting requirements themselves aren't new and that the review wasn't prompted by anything specific.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MILITARY_WEAPONS_POLICE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-06-08-04-23-32
dotymed
(5,610 posts)"our" local police departments are so militarized?
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)You'd almost think the Pentagon was concerned that their junk would be used responsibly.
-- Mal
catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)...so the Arizona sheriff holding the Humvee bake sale last month was a co-incidence?
daaron
(763 posts)AP: Publishers of Quality Newspeak Since 9/11.
Read this as: "The inventory was prompted by wholesale theft of all of the above, not theft of any specific item."
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Hmmm..wonder which state is not a problem.
erpowers
(9,350 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)the UK
Seriously though a girlfriend of mine used to audit part of our fire brigade. A surprising number of our fire engines turned up in Africa.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)If things are that bad then declare a state of emergency and implement martial law.
If not then keep the military and the police separate entities as they were always meant to be.