President Obama issued Executive Order 13688 in
January after the 2014 riots in Ferguson, Mo. It
was done amid concerns about the “militarization” of the police fueling a
heavy-handed response. Items on the prohibited list include armored tracked vehicles, weaponized aircraft
and vehicles, .50-caliber firearms and ammo, bayonets, and camouflage.
Valuable
vehicles and equipment are being yanked from law enforcement agencies across
the country by the Obama administration in the wake of the president’s
post-Ferguson order — as sheriffs and lawmakers tell
FoxNews.com the equipment is needed, and losing it could put officers and the
communities they serve in danger.
“These things are useful tools and
the president taking them away will put more officers in jeopardy and at risk
of harm or even death. I don’t know how he can sleep at night knowing his
actions will have those repercussions,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told
FoxNews.com.
President
Obama issued Executive Order 13688 in
January after the 2014 riots in Ferguson, Mo., amid concerns about the “militarization” of the police fueling a
heavy-handed response.
The controversy circled around the
1033 program, set up by the Defense Department in 1997. The program authorizes
the Pentagon to send excess military equipment such as armored tracked
vehicles, camouflage uniforms and weapons to local law enforcement agencies for
no cost. Supporters of the program say
it saves money for local agencies, strengthens those agencies and allows the
U.S. to get a second use out of existing equipment.
Obama’s order set up a working group
to provide recommendations on changes. The group, headed by officials at the
Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of
Justice, then drew up a list of items that would either be controlled or
prohibited entirely from being acquired via the 1033 program.
“We’ve seen how militarized gear can
sometimes give people a feeling like there’s an occupying force, as opposed to
a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them.
It can alienate and intimidate local residents, and send the wrong message. So
we’re going to prohibit some equipment made for the battlefield that is not
appropriate for local police departments,” Obama said in May when
the report was released.
Items on the prohibited list include
armored tracked vehicles, weaponized
aircraft and vehicles, .50-caliber firearms and ammo, bayonets, and camouflage.
And now the feds are looking to collect.
A recall of items on the prohibited
list that had been handed out via the 1033 program went into effect on Oct. 1,
and law enforcement agencies have until April 1, 2016, to return them, a
spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency told FoxNews.com.
Sheriffs
using the program are outraged, saying that the main focus of the initial
backlash – the armored tracked vehicles – are purely defensive vehicles that save lives in crisis situations, and double as rescue
vehicles in areas with rough terrain.
Sheriff Mike Bouchard of Oakland
County, Mich., told FoxNews.com of a situation in which an active shooter was
holed up in his house shooting out of the windows, hitting nearby homes.
Bouchard said they were able to use the vehicle to evacuate residents from
houses, while also protecting police officers from being shot. During the
siege, over 500 rounds of ammunition were exchanged.
“There’s no question that saved lives,” Bouchard, who is also a
former senatorial and gubernatorial candidate, said. “We have letters from
people we evacuated saying ‘we don’t
know what you could have done to save us without that armored vehicle.‘”
Bouchard said the federal government’s
crackdown on the equipment is an example of the disconnect between Obama’s
claims and reality. “His verbiage calls these tanks.
These aren’t tanks. There is no offensive weaponry mounted on a tracked armored
vehicle in any police department. These are big safe boxes,” he said.
The vehicles themselves aren’t
banned, only those distributed under the 1033 program. However, many counties
received their vehicles free-of-charge, and won’t be able to afford to buy one
of their own – something they say makes their officers less safe.
“Our agency is not big, we have a total of 130 employees, and we don’t
have quarter-of-a-million-dollar budget to buy one,” Sheriff Larry
Amerson of Calhoun County, Ala., told FoxNews.com. “The 1033 program gave us
the opportunity to get that for free, which was in my view a no brainer.”
Amerson added that in the light of
the Paris terror attacks, the president’s order is even more concerning. “As has been demonstrated in Paris,
the potential for those kind of attacks is there, and the response to those
attacks in the U.S. will be local law enforcement and whatever resources we
have on hand now will be what we can bring to the table if that happens,” he
said.
“Sheriffs are very angry. It’s a tool in our toolbox being taken away from
us based on perception. When we show up with a piece of equipment to
save lives it can’t always look safe and cozy,” Laney told FoxNews.com.
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