U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says the federal government should have no role in the country's local and state police forces.
Homeland Security, Justice, and Defense department senior officials testified Tuesday before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee oversight hearing.
Coburn serves as the group’s ranking Republican. He says he's concerned about how the 1033 program for excess Defense Department property and Urban Area Security Initiative grants are utilized, and what they're utilized for.
“It’s hard to see a difference between the militarized and increasingly federalized police force we see in towns across America today, and the force that Madison had in mind when he said, ‘A standing military force with an overgrown executive will not long be a safe companion to liberty.’," Coburn said.
The Oklahoman's Chris Casteel reports Coburn said he hasn't seen many instances of military hardware used to fight terrorism on a local level, and questioned why equipment like Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles is offered to small law enforcement agencies.
Alan F. Estevez, a deputy under secretary at the Defense Department, told Coburn that an MRAP was just a truck. “No, it’s not a truck,” Coburn said. “It’s 48,000 pounds of offensive weapon.” Before MRAPs are sent out to states, they’re stripped of all electronic warfare capability, Estevez said. “It does not have a .50-caliber weapon on it,” he said. “It is not an offensive weapon. It is a protective vehicle.” Coburn asked Estevez how decisions are made about what military equipment is offered.
Weeks of violent conflicts sparked by protests in Ferguson, Missouri over the fatal police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown prompted the Senate hearing.
The White House plans its own review of the police equipment program.
"What we have seen done, on the basis of what we saw on 9/11, seems to be an over-reaction,” Coburn said. “Progress toward what the federal government and law enforcement doing the same thing it’s done in every other area when it comes to the General Welfare clause and the Commerce Clause. We’re on dangerous ground.”
-----------------------------------
KGOU produces journalism in the public interest, essential to an informed electorate. Help support informative, in-depth journalism with a donation online, or contact our Membership department.
