No more military equipment to U.S. law enforcement?

[Voodoo_Man]

Why do you think there is a push to 'Federalize' local police?

They can "push" all they want, fact will remain that it is extremely difficult to overcome statehood and state's rights.

[TAZ]

Don't really see much of an issue with eliminating tracked vehicles and the like from local LEO. IMO the strings attached to all these government programs far outweigh the actual usefulness of the equipment offered. There are other ways to skin the cat than government dependence.

[skijunkie55]

So it's better to just leave these items in some abandoned shipping yard in Afghanistan than bring them back to the US and try to get some of the value out of these things that the American tax payer already bought... Makes sense to me. I can't see any reason why we shouldn't just throw things away. You know like scrapping $50 million worth of F-16s instead of selling them to an allied country.


I wish wasteful spending was a crime.

[nova3930]

You know like scrapping $50 million worth of F-16s instead of selling them to an allied country.

Which 16s are you talking about?

[ralph]

I don't mind the PD's getting things like AR's for example at a discount, However I question small dept's(12-24LEO's) wanting things like Armored vehicles.. Locally, a few years back a small town about 10 miles from me had a PD with about 12 LEO's. Taking advantage of some sort of govt program they ended up getting for free, a 1970's(Vietnam era) tracked APC....There was a huge uproar that followed.. and of course parts, maintainence was on them..at taxpayer expense. To me, before a PD is able to get things like armored vehicles, they need to demonstrate that they have a actual need/ use for it, as well as a way to maintain the vehicle, with out draining the taxpayer. In this case, as far as I know this thing just sits in a garage.. Once they figured out what it was going to take to maintain it,(and this small town really couldn't afford it) I think they figured out they got a white elephant.. I mean it's one thing to have a PD with 5-600 or more officers, and in that case I could see having a couple armored vehicles, but for a small town PD with 12 officers..ahh, NO.

[skijunkie55]

Which 16s are you talking about?

Got my numbers and planes incorrect... 16 cargo planes worth $500 million

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...pplied-planes/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...t-Afghans.html

I should have stuck with the $50 million :'(

[Averageman]

I don't mind the PD's getting things like AR's for example at a discount, However I question small dept's(12-24LEO's) wanting things like Armored vehicles.. Locally, a few years back a small town about 10 miles from me had a PD with about 12 LEO's. Taking advantage of some sort of govt program they ended up getting for free, a 1970's(Vietnam era) tracked APC....There was a huge uproar that followed.. and of course parts, maintainence was on them..at taxpayer expense. To me, before a PD is able to get things like armored vehicles, they need to demonstrate that they have a actual need/ use for it, as well as a way to maintain the vehicle, with out draining the taxpayer for it. In this case, as far as I know this thing just sits in a garage.. Once they figured out what it was going to take to maintain it,(and this small town really couldn't afford it) I think they figured out they got a white elephant.. I mean it's one thing to have a PD with 5-600 or more officers, and in that case I could see having a couple armored vehicles, but for a small town PD with 12 officers..ahh, NO.

Trying to explain to someone who hasn't had the experience just what the cost of maintenance on some of this equipment will cost is nearly a lost cause.
I maintain this stuff for a living and have had some discussions with some fairly educated folks about the cost of and the cost of not doing maintenance on these White Elephants, for the most part; they don't get it.

[TMS951]

This all sounds good to me, the point of maintenance cost on these things is a very good one. My local PD having any of this does not make me feel in the least bit safer.

Now we just need to put an end to 'Policing for profit' which continues to grow.

[skijunkie55]

Trying to explain to someone who hasn't had the experience just what the cost of maintenance on some of this equipment will cost is nearly a lost cause.
I maintain this stuff for a living and have had some discussions with some fairly educated folks about the cost of and the cost of not doing maintenance on these White Elephants, for the most part; they don't get it.

So why don't they auction these things off to the public and make some money on them? Win win win for everyone.

[Averageman]

So why don't they auction these things off to the public and make some money on them? Win win win for everyone.

For the most part they do that. A couple of times a year they have an auction here and sell a lot of this stuff, much of it is stripped for the engines, transmissions and the rest is cut up for scrap.
All of that works pretty good, but except for the odd ball collector who wants an M113?
I would guess an annual service on some of this equipment might run you 10K + including parts, POL and Labor.