Police Use of Military Equipment
At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Af- fairs Committee hearing on September 9, lawmakers grilled Administration officials about the provision of military-grade equipment to State and local police departments by the Federal Government. Senator Claire McCaskill (MO-D) called for the hearing in the wake of the local law enforcement response to the public protests following the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The hearing focused on the U.S. Defense Department’s 1033 program, which gives excess military equipment to State and local police forces, as well as similar grant pro- grams administered by the…
