No plans to militarize Isabella County law enforcement, officials say
Following the controversial shooting death of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo., a national debate has begun regarding law enforcement agencies acquiring and using military-grade equipment to perform their duties.
The Detroit Free Press recently published a database online collected from the Defense Logistics Agency, which oversees the Department of Defense Excess Property Program 1033, listing equipment procured by police throughout the nation.
Reviewing the database, Isabella County police departments have acquired night vision equipment, straight telescopes and a dozen rifles: four 5.56 millimeter and eight 7.62 millimeter.
Mount Pleasant Police Department Public Information Officer Jeff Browne said the department’s emergency crew acquired an armored vehicle - a one-ton truck built in the ‘80s called “The Old Peacekeeper.”
“We’ve never used the truck on CMU property, and I can only think of one time in the last couple of years we needed to use it based on the situation,” Browne said. “A few years back there was a situation with a man with a rifle and we had to use the truck to get close enough to his home to order him to surrender.”
The vehicle was used to close the distance gap between police and the armed suspect safely in case the suspect opened fire on the officers, Browne said.
The debate about the militarization of police is relatively new, but police acquiring equipment associated with the military is not.
“If you Goolge ‘top ten police shootouts’ or something like that, you’ll see incidents where the police are out gunned,” said LTC Greg Thayer, professor of military science and head of the CMU ROTC program. “As weapon technology progresses, when do you say you don’t want the police to have something?”
Thayer recalled several high-profile incidents in the U.S. where police were under-equipped for a situation. This included the 1986 FBI Miami shootout where two bank robbers out-gunned eight FBI agents, killing two. He also mentioned the infamous North Hollywood shootout where two bank robbers in Kevlar armor, and armed with multiple fully-automatic weapons, fired more than 3,300 rounds of ammunition in a shootout with police.
“The issue isn’t that police are getting equipment. It’s how it’s used,” Thayer said. “There needs to be training and oversight.”.
Browne said Mount Pleasant police train regularly with use of new equipment and “The Old Peacekeeper.”
Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said the Sheriff’s Department is aware of the Department of Defense program but has not participated, instead favoring a grant program to buy officers bullet resistant vests.
“We don’t use that stuff (military surplus),” the sheriff said. “Understandably, stuff like an armored vehicle can be valuable in certain situations. Keep in mind, just because a police department gets a Humvee or something, it doesn’t mean they’re being militarized.”
A representative from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police Department was unable to be reached for comment about whether or not that department has acquired equipment through the program.
