Obama Doesn’t Really Care About Police Militarization

The headline for
The New York Times’ story about the White House’s
just-released report analyzing the federal transfer of military
equipment to local law enforcement agencies reads “Obama to Toughen
Standards on Police Use of Military Gear.” The headline isn’t
wrong, exactly, but a look at the
actual report (pdf) from the White House really indicates
throwing more paperwork at police departments for oversight and
perpetuates the idea that abuse of military equipment by police
agencies is a “training” issue, not a choice to be deliberately
aggressive.

The White House promised to study police militarization in the
wake of how various law enforcement agencies in Ferguson, Missouri,
responded to the peaceful protesters, not just the aggressive or
criminal ones. What comes out of the report is a call for better
documentation and transparency, and an easily supportable demand
that local governments must actually review and authorize
acquisition of the “controlled property” military equipment (guns
and vehicles) by law enforcement agencies.

What the report doesn’t recommend is scaling back the
programs in any notable or significant way. It appears as though
the White House is trying to have it both ways on police
militarization, calling for reforms without having to tackle the
issues surrounding whether it’s actually necessary.
From BuzzFeed, which recently
noted the failure of any sort recent efforts to scale back
police militarization on the federal end:

The administration is keeping its hands off the bipartisan
militarization debate, which imploded after a brief surge in
interest on Capitol Hill. Administration officials noted repeatedly
that “the vast majority” of surplus military equipment sent to
local police forces is not former combat equipment and said they
could not alter programs created by Congress.

Asked about proposed legislation to limit the availability of
military equipment to local police, proposed by Democrats and
Republicans in the House and Senate, the official said the White
House had not reviewed the bills.

“I don’t have a specific position for you,” the official
said.

“Our assumption is Congress has an intent here to support local
law enforcement with the use of this kind of equipment,” the
official said on a conference call with reporters Monday. “Our
focus is on what kind of protections are in place to make sure it’s
used properly and safely.”

That only a small percentage of stuff given to the police is
former combat equipment seems to be a big talking point for the
administration. It’s mentioned in the report as well. But the
report does also show how big that four percent is in real
numbers:

To date, approximately 460,000 pieces of controlled property are
currently in the possession of LEAs. Examples of controlled
property provided include: 92,442 small arms, 44,275 night vision
devices, 5,235 high mobility, multi-purpose wheeled vehicles
(HMMWVs), 617 mine resistant ambush protected vehicles and 616
aircraft.

This is not to say that it’s wrong for the White House to
acknowledge that Congress is responsible for scaling back or
altering the federal programs, particularly given the Obama
administration’s reputation for executive actions. But not taking
“a specific position” is actually taking a position. It should be
read that the administration supports the transfer of military
equipment to law enforcement agencies. In fact, the opening
statement of the White House report describes the reasons why
police have sought out the military equipment as “legitimate
concerns.”

What we should take away from today’s announcement is that there
will be no push to scale back these programs from the White House.
It is up to Congress.

The White House does, however, want to offer millions in federal
grants to
help supply body cameras to police departments across the
country. That’s worth noting, too.