Police Departments Use Federal Grants to Stock Up on Fancy Riot and Terrorism Gear

Tuesday, December 27, 2011
To the benefit of weapons manufacturers, Police departments throughout the United States have been loading up on sophisticated weaponry and riot gear since September 11, 2001, thanks to generous grants from the federal government.
 
About $34 billion in grants have been awarded by Washington to help police forces gear up for terrorist assaults, even in areas where such attacks seem unlikely.
 
In Fargo, North Dakota, one of the safest cities in America, local law enforcement has reaped $8 million in grants to buy assault rifles (now standard in all squad cars), bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment, Kevlar helmets, and a $257,000 armored truck.
 
The sheriff’s department in Montgomery County, Texas, north of Houston, now owns a $300,000 pilotless surveillance drone.
 
In Augusta, Maine (population: 19,136), where the last time an officer died from gunfire was the 19th century, police bought eight $1,500 tactical vests.
 
FBI statistics show that violent crime is declining in the United States and that in 2010 the national murder rate was the lowest it has been since 1963.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Local Police Stockpile High-Tech, Combat-Ready Gear (by Andrew Becker and G. W. Schulz, Center for Investigative Reporting)
U.S. Murder Rate Drops to 47-Year Low (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

The Militarization of Your Local Police (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov) 

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