Bill targets surplus transfers

COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador introduced a bill called the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014.

It would place restrictions and transparency measures on a U.S. Department of Defense program which transfers surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies.

Some local law enforcement officials, however, said it would be unfortunate if the flow of equipment ceased.

"Our nation was founded on the principle of a clear line between the military and civilian policing," Labrador said in a statement Tuesday. "The Pentagon's current surplus property program blurs that line by introducing a military model of overwhelming force in our cities and towns."

Labrador said the bill would restore the focus of local law enforcement on protecting citizens and providing due process for the accused.

Dan Popkey, a spokesman for Labrador, said Tuesday the congressman has been concerned about the issue for some time.

"In June, he voted for an amendment to the defense appropriations bill to defund the program," Popkey said.

Under the Pentagon's so-called 1033 program, the Department of Defense has provided $4.2 billion in surplus military equipment.

"We have been the recipient of a lot of equipment from this program that we would have had to spend local tax dollars to purchase had this program not been available," said Post Falls Police Chief Scot Haug.

He said his department has received cars, a van, computers, filing cabinets, helmets and patrol rifles.

"Many people are using the Ferguson incident as an example of the problems with the 1033 program," Haug said, referring to the shooting death of an unarmed 18-year-old black man in Ferguson, Mo., by a police officer and the protests that followed.

"Out of all of the news reports that I have seen, I have not seen any military surplus equipment that was used by the police in that incident," Haug said. "All of the equipment they were using - that I saw - was all police-grade equipment commonly referred to as 'Bearcat' equipment."

He called the "uninformed hysteria about this issue unfortunate," particularly in a year with a 52 percent increase in officers killed by gunfire across the country.

"To propose taking away equipment that would save lives is unfortunate," Haug said. "What will be available to reduce line-of-duty deaths?"

The Coeur d'Alene Police Department has never participated in the program, said agency spokeswoman Sgt. Christie Wood.

Congressman Hank Johnson, of Georgia, joined Labrador in introducing the bill.

"Before another small town's police force gets a $700,000 gift from the Defense Department that it can't maintain or manage, it behooves us to press pause on the Pentagon's 1033 program and revisit the merits of a militarized America," Johnson said in a statement.

If passed, the act would prevent the transfers of equipment deemed inappropriate for local policing, such as high-caliber weapons, long-range acoustic devices, grenade launchers, weaponized drones, armored vehicles, and grenades or similar explosives, according to Labrador's office.

It would end incentives to use equipment in circumstances when the use is unnecessary. Under the 1033 program, local police are required to use the equipment within a year.

Finally, it would require recipients of the equipment to certify that they can account for all of it.