Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

Military gives, police gladly receive

States are lining up to get surplus equipment, including helicopters and armored vehicles.

By Associated PRess
Published January 27, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department is giving away free equipment the military no longer needs to state and local police: fatigues for secret surveillance of drug labs in Indiana, a tranquilizer gun to shoot bears in Pennsylvania, a doublewide trailer in Virginia.

Cash-strapped law enforcement agencies are lining up to take advantage of the Pentagon's generosity. About 16,000 departments obtained more than 380,000 pieces of equipment in the 2005 budget year, according to an analysis of data provided by the Pentagon at the request of the Associated Press.

The items, which include night-vision goggles, copy machines, helicopters and bulletproof vests, were worth nearly $124-million.

Authorities in Bucks County, Pa., just outside Philadelphia, turned to the Pentagon for two hand-me-down armored vehicles to protect officers in hostage standoffs. The total savings to local taxpayers: more than $70,000 a piece.

Detectives on a drug task force in Tippecanoe County, Ind., wear military fatigues for covert surveillance of methamphetamine cooks and cocaine dealers. In Pennsylvania, the state game commission uses a tranquilizer gun to put tracking collars on bears. In Covina, Calif., police converted a military ambulance into a SWAT team vehicle.

Police describe the free equipment as a godsend.

The program began in 1990 and is administered by the Defense Logistic Agency. Police pay only to ship the equipment and for necessary upgrades. The military gives away items it considers obsolete for its use, parts that already have been replaced or are no longer needed.

"We've gotten unbelievable stuff," said police Sgt. Jim Forbes in Hampton, Va. "It's benefiting a whole lot of folks in this business."

Last year, Forbes' department obtained 55 patrol rifles and paid only a few hundred dollars for shipping. Over the years, his department has received boats and even a doublewide trailer it uses as a training room.

Some states have soured on what they describe as bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the Pentagon since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Wyoming closed its coordinator's office more than two years ago because it cost more money to operate than the value of the equipment it received, said Gayleen Wyant, the surplus property manager there. "They're not making it easy for states to go and pick up their surplus," she said.

Other states appear more appreciative.

The 1960s-era armored vehicles given to Bucks County only needed paint and fresh batteries, said Scott Pepperman, chief of the state's Federal Surplus and Law Enforcement Property Division. The vehicles are used in standoffs and hostage situations.

"If you're in your office and barricaded, and one of these things pulls up in your front lawn, it's very intimidating," said Lt. Michael Clark of the Northampton Township Police Department in Bucks County.

Fast Facts:

Military swag

The top recipients of free military equipment nationwide:

California: $17-million worth of equipment.

Indiana: $10.5-million worth of items.

North Carolina: $10-million worth.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 00:39:03]