Using foreign policy to #DefundPolice
Speaking Security Newsletter | Congressional Candidate Advisory Note 17 | 11 June 2020
Two arguments, here: 1) Transferring military-grade equipment to police forces inflates police budgets; 2) Transferring military-grade equipment to police forces inflates DOD budgets.
1. Transferring military-grade equipment to police forces inflates police budgets
One of the primary justifications used by state/local police forces to justify its receipt of military-grade equipment from DOD is that it saves money (others: officer safety, prestige, force capacity). They have to say this because police forces still pay for DOD’s donations. Police must pay to retrieve the equipment or pay for shipment. They also have to pay for all costs related to operation and maintenance.

Police report substantial net savings, but this is only because they classify ‘savings’ on the value of the equipment they received. This assumes that the military-grade hardware received would be purchased anyway. That’s not the case.
Small police departments say that they use the 1033/LESO program to obtain equipment they otherwise couldn’t afford; like MRAPs, aircraft, and rifles (one surveyed respondent from a small police force said that the cost of one MRAP would exceed their entire annual budget). Large police forces report pretty much the same thing, but that the program allows them to get really expensive stuff, like aircraft.
So while police see savings all I see are additional costs — and therefore additional lines in the state/local budget occupied by police expenses.
2. Transferring military-grade equipment to police forces inflates DOD budgets
Like all political institutions the US military has its own set of priorities. Chief among DOD’s is self-preservation and growth. This is the best explanation I can come up with for the following:
Military officers complaining that the Department is chronically underfunded (despite reality showing the exact opposite problem)
DOD burying an internal study that revealed $125 million in administrative waste
DOD leadership fretting about how DOD budgets will be affected by the ongoing public health crisis
The 1033/LESO program helps DOD justify its obscene budgets: the more things DOD claims as ‘excess’ (and give to police forces) the more things DOD can say it needs. In a 2014 Government Accountability Office report (GAO-14-495), it was found that DLA had disposed of a significant amount of matériel that it would likely request to purchase in the future. What’s worse, the Department has repeatedly declared a number of items as ‘excess’ and gave them away to state/local police while purchasing the same items (or newer versions) in the same year.
DOD says that most of the equipment it transfers to police forces are ‘uncontrolled’ products (cheap, harmless things like first aid kits, t-shirts, etc). They’re not wrong, but only in terms of quantity. In terms of value, ‘controlled’ equipment (the really problematic/expensive stuff) dominates the ledger:

Conclusion
It’s upsetting that this link between DOD and police exists, but slightly energizing knowing that because of this link, divesting from one effectively means divesting from the other.
Thanks,
Stephen (stephen@securityreform.org; @stephensemler)