Small police depts. stocking up on military surplus.

 The three law enforcement agencies are among thousands across the country getting free military equipment in record-setting numbers through a Defense Department program that makes retired or surplus items available to them. Acquisitions have soared in recent years, propelled by tight local budgets, greater awareness of the program and an increase in equipment as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have wound down.

Nationally, the value of goods obtained by cash-strapped local agencies jumped from $213 million in 2010 to nearly $500 million in 2011, and, at $419 million so far this year, it's on pace to easily surpass that total. In Minnesota, police, sheriff's offices and the State Patrol have acquired $1 million-plus worth of items this year, more than twice the total for the previous two years combined.

The program started as a support for federal and state agencies for use in counter-drug activities and was later extended to include counter-terrorism and law enforcement activities under the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997, according to the Department of Defense. Now, it has more than 11,500 local federal and state members across all 50 states and three U.S. territories.

"This program gives us the ability to use military technology that we would not be able to afford otherwise," Carroll said, "All the items we acquire are placed into service immediately."

"I have yet to see a justification for this amount of firepower, other than we can get it for free," said Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

Professor Joseph Daly, who has done research on the issue and runs a human rights clinic at Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, said he sees a danger in distributing equipment designed for war to small-town police forces. Doing so, he said, will change the mindset of police officers and citizens.

But even in these days of increased dangers for police departments, local forces aren’t paramilitary units; that’s not the image they should project, either. If this arms race among Calhoun County’s police departments isn’t already out of hand, it might be soon enough.

The rub is that communities need to see their police officers as more than armed, uniformed personnel who, when necessary, can guard the streets with Army-style weapons. Communities need to see officers as who they are: People who genuinely care about the well-being of those they protect and serve.http://www.startribune.com/local/north/164154296.html?refer=y

http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2012/06/small-town-cops-stock-up-on-useless-military-gear-what-are-they-preparing-for-2318157.html

http://www.annistonstar.com/pages/full_story/push?article-When+a+tank+isn%E2%80%99t+enough%20&id=19224590&instance=1st_right

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/cops-military-gear/