Trump reverses Obama limits on military gear for local police

For years, local law enforcement across the US could apply for surplus military gear through the Pentagon’s 1033 Program, allowing small-town cops to chase down criminals with actual tanks and grenade launchers. Unsurprisingly, equipping police departments with battlefield-ready gear made their personnel see themselves less like law officers serving a community and a lot more like soldiers fighting a war.

After the 2014 crisis in Ferguson, MO, which became a “war zone” with local cops using military-grade gear on its own populace, President Obama imposed some much-needed limits on the 1033 Program:

[T]he new policy will stop “tanks and other tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vehicles, firearms and ammunition measuring .50-caliber and larger, grenade launchers and bayonets” from being given to local police agencies.

Additionally, the new policy would attach some restrictions and conditions to the transfer of other equipment, “including armored tactical vehicles like those used in Ferguson, as well as many types of firearms, ammunition and explosives.” These restrictions include requiring the agencies to present “a clear and persuasive explanation of the need for the controlled equipment,” […] train officers who will be using the gear, and keep data on how the equipment is used and with what results.

If you can think of a single good reason why community police might need .50-caliber weaponry designed to punch through tanks from a mile away, I commend you on having a better imagination than I do. As Radley Balko points out in the above-quoted article, changing the police’s approach to “engag[ing] with residents instead of reacting to them”, thus eliminating the desire for military-type equipment, is what fosters healthier relationships between police and their community. He cites the case of Camden, New Jersey, where crime dropped precipitously over the course of a single year after the old police force was replaced with new officers trained to see themselves as guardians, not warriors.

Demilitarization, especially relating to mindsets, works. Arming local police like army soldiers doesn’t. This is well-established and documented.

So naturally, Trump is preparing to wrong a right.

The Trump administration is preparing to lift a controversial ban on the transfer of some surplus military equipment to police departments whose battlefield-style response to rioting in a St. Louis suburb three years ago prompted a halt to the program.

The new plan, outlined in documents obtained by USA TODAY, would roll back an Obama administration executive order that blocked armored vehicles, large-caliber weapons, ammunition and other heavy equipment from being re-purposed from foreign battlefields to America's streets.

[…]

The administration's action would restore "the full scope of a longstanding program for recycling surplus, lifesaving gear from the Department of Defense, along with restoring the full scope of grants used to purchase this type of equipment from other sources,'' according to a administration summary of the new program recently circulated to some law enforcement groups.

As with so many things Trump does, this move serves absolutely no valid purpose. It won’t help reduce crime – cities with tougher, warrior-type police forces don’t typically have lower crime rates than cities that adopt a more community-centered approach. In fact, it’s actively counterproductive, further blurring the the line between police and soldiers, something that’s anathema to a free society.

The one thing this will accomplish is to help burnish Trump’s pseudo-macho, look-at-me-I’m-tough-on-crime act. With his track record of supporting the worst elements of the law enforcement community and being flippant at best (or actively encouraging at worst) towards police brutality, this is really just more of the same for him.