Excellent article from the Center for Investigative Reporting's California Watch:
Free Military Surplus Gear A Boon To Local Law Enforcement
San Diego Police, Sheriff's Dept. Among Agencies Receiving Free Weapons, Equipment
POSTED: 4:58 pm PDT March 30, 2012
UPDATED: 7:33 pm PDT March 30, 2012
SAN DIEGO -- Among its fleet of helicopters, patrol cars, inmate buses and other vehicles, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department keeps four long-haul semitrailers ready to go at a moment's notice.
Their purpose: Travel the country retrieving discarded -- and free of charge -- U.S. military hand-me-downs for its deputies to use in California.
M16 rifles, helicopters, microwaves, survival kits, workout equipment, bayonet knives, ammunition cans and more - the LA sheriff's office snaps up an average of $4 million to $5 million in surplus military equipment annually.
...
The Department of Defense's equipment bazaar is another sign of how aggressively some police departments increasingly resemble small armies. Civilian law enforcement have equipped themselves with assault-style weapons and even tanks, first as part of the war on drugs and later in the name of fighting terrorism.
California police accumulated more equipment during 2011 than any other year in the equipment-transfer program's two-decade history, according to a California Watch analysis of U.S. Department of Defense data.
...
Story by G.W. Schulz and Andrew Becker, California Watch
This story was edited by Robert Salladay and copy edited by Nikki Frick.
This story was produced by California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team, is part of the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. For more, visit www.californiawatch.org.
http://www.10news.com/news/30806675/detail.html
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