Police militarization became a hot button topic after Ferguson, prompting Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and other Washington lawmakers to question the Department of Defense’s (DoD) 1033 exchange program, which grants police departments relatively free and easy access to surplus military equipment.
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CBS News reports that it isn’t just local police departments receiving equipment, including the controversial Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP), it’s campus police and some K-12 school police departments.
The University of Texas is one of the major schools named in the report:
The university’s police department is one of at least 125 school law enforcement agencies in 25 states that have received military gear free of charge from the Department of Defense. That includes police departments for 23 kindergarten-through-12 school districts and 102 colleges and universities.
A CBS News review of available public data from more than 30 states found that law enforcement agencies affiliated with educational institutions have obtained more than $13 million worth of military gear from the program. Among the items received: 145 pistols, 780 rifles and nine of the mine resistant vehicles.
“The presence of military weaponry on schools undermines public trust, and it undermines public safety, and it’s not the right response,” American Civil Liberties Union Senior Counsel Kara Dansky told CBS.
One department, it should be noted, returned an MRAP after the public expressed that it was uncomfortable with the idea of having it.
“Post-Ferguson, really, we saw some conversations come to the top that we’d never had in this community before,” San Diego Unified School District Chief of Police Rueben Littlejohn said. “We’re returning it because some members of the community have expressed the fact that they are uncomfortable with the vehicle that’s military by design.”
The University of Texas System Director of Police Michael Heidingsfield said that having the tools he needs, in case of emergency, explains why he has an MRAP.
“I’m required to protect and serve the University of Texas System,” he said. “I ought to employ or have in my repertoire every possible tool. I hope that vehicle never has to leave the warehouse it sits in. But if I don’t have it, and then we need it, I’ve not made the right decision.”
‘Just in case’ isn’t a response that sits well with many. A humorous instance of this ‘just in case’ logic being questioned on Capitol Hill occurred when Sen. Paul asked a DoD rep why bayonets were being given out to police departments.
Paul asked Hon. Alan Estevez “what purpose are bayonets being given out for?”
It turns out that 12,000 bayonets have been sent to police departments across the nation.
Estevez couldn’t offer an answer, “I can’t answer what a local police force would need a bayonet for,” indicating that the police just have them for the sake of having them.
The Kentucky senator replied, “I can give you an answer: None.”