Labrador pushes bipartisan bill to restrict military equipment going to police

Idaho 1st District GOP Congressman Raul Labrador introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to restrict surplus military equipment from going to state and local law enforcement agencies, saying local police shouldn’t be militarized. “Our nation was founded on the principle of a clear line between the military and civilian policing,” Labrador said in statement. “The Pentagon’s current surplus property program blurs that line by introducing a military model of overwhelming force in our cities and towns. Our bill would restore the focus of local law enforcement on protecting citizens and providing due process for the accused. In 2011, Labrador co-sponsored a bill to require 10 percent of military equipment being returned from Iraq that’s suitable for law enforcement work, including drones, humvees and night-vision goggles, to be sent to federal and state agencies with a preference for using it for southern border security. Labrador’s spokesman, Dan Popkey, says that was “apples and oranges” and nothing like the program he’s targeting today. “The 2011 bill was specifically for border security,” Popkey said. “Also, the items had to be suitable for local policing.” The 2011 bill, dubbed the SEND Act, didn’t pass. SEND stood for “Send Equipment for National Defense” Act. It directed the Secretary of Defense, within one year after eligible equipment returns to the United States from Iraq, to transfer at least 10 percent of that equipment to federal and state agencies, “with a preference to agencies that will use the equipment primarily for U.S. southern border security purposes.” It did not limit the equipment exclusively to that use, however. The bill defined as “eligible equipment” any equipment determined to be suitable for use in law enforcement activities, “including surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles, night-vision goggles, and high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles (humvees).” The 2011 bill had 18 co-sponsors, all Republicans. “The congressman has always supported transfers of equipment appropriate for local law enforcement,” Popkey said. But he’s concluded that some equipment now being transferred isn’t. The new bill, dubbed the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014, targets the Pentagon’s surplus property program that’s provided $4.2 billion in surplus military equipment to local and state law enforcement agencies without charge. That’s included everything from Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicles, or MRAPs, to grenade launchers and high-caliber assault rifles. The program’s come under scrutiny since local police in Ferguson, Mo. used tank-like vehicles and military-style weapons for crowd control during demonstrations following the police shooting of a young unarmed man. Labrador’s bill, which he introduced with Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and a bipartisan group of four other co-sponsors, would exclude certain equipment including high-caliber weapons, long-range acoustic devices, grenade launchers, weaponized drones, armored vehicles and explosives from the program. It also would remove a requirement that police agencies use the equipment they get within a year, which Labrador said has been giving local police an incentive to use the military gear in inappropriate circumstances. The bill also requires agencies to certify they can account for all equipment. In 2012, one Arizona sheriff was barred from the program after he couldn’t account for weapons and other equipment he’d received; and another Arizona county turned out to have transferred some of the equipment to non-police agencies like fire and ambulance units, in violation of the program’s rules.