Pentagon armed police with billions in vehicles, weapons

Police on an armored vehicle patrol downtown Walnut Creek, Calif., last Monday after a protest resulted in looting. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images)

The high plains and rugged mountains of Wyoming aren’t exactly synonymous with high crime rates or modern warfare, much less the kinds of mass protests currently roiling the country. But police agencies in the sparsely populated state have been arming themselves to the teeth in recent years.

Just 80,000 people reside in sprawling Natrona County, home of the city of Casper, yet the county sheriff’s office has scored three military-style armored trucks since 1997 worth a combined $195,000, plus a $126,000 cargo carrier. The sheriff’s office in nearby Campbell County, which has just 48,000 residents, helped itself to a $658,000 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, or MRAP, in 2013 and a $733,000 version the following year. In the capital city of Cheyenne, police ordered a pair of MRAPs worth a combined $1.42 million.

All of it has been virtually free, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense and its 1033 program, which has given law enforcement agencies across the country access to a huge array of surplus military weapons, equipment and, reportedly, more than 13,000 MRAP vehicles, many of which have been seen driving on city streets recently as police confront those protesting the death of George Floyd in police custody. It has contributed to what many say is an alarming militarization of civilian police forces sworn to protect, not attack, citizens. And it’s drawing fresh scrutiny from those who decry the aggressive crackdown on protesters, and the killing of unarmed black Americans, by police.

Controversial for many years, the 1033 program now faces renewed, bipartisan calls in Congress to limit it or shut it down.

“As a combat veteran and proud Marine, very little of my equipment or training was relevant to policing Phoenix or other American communities,” U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and military veteran, told The New York Times. “Our neighborhoods aren’t war zones.”

Originally developed out of need to protect U.S. soldiers from improvised explosive devices and ambushes in Iraq and Afghanistan, MRAP production ended in 2012 after nearly 27,000 were built by seven manufacturers, but many are still in use. Weighing up to 18 tons, they typically feature a V-shaped hull, raised chassis, armored plating and blast-resistant underbodies. Law enforcement agencies cite their usefulness in responding to natural disasters situations like floods or hurricanes, for use by SWAT teams or for responding to terrorist attacks.

But they’ve also featured in the police response to Black Lives Matter protests in cities including Minneapolis, Miami and Washington D.C. According to BuzzFeed News, the most recent inventory of property held by local law enforcement agencies shows that police in New York City have two MRAP vehicles worth $1.5 million. The Chicago Police Department helped itself to one to go with a $916,000 helicopter and more than 300 military rifles, part of a total haul of more than $1.8 million worth of gear.