Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the change in a speech at the Nashville headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police on Monday, saying the limitations had hurt law enforcement.
“The executive order the president will sign today will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence, and lawlessness to become the new normal,” Sessions said. “And we will save taxpayer money in the meantime.”
A Justice Department official said the order would take effect immediately.
USA Today reports:
The FOP and some other law enforcement groups have long been pressing for a reversal of the Obama administration policy, arguing that access to such equipment was needed, especially in cash-strapped communities, to better respond to local unrest. Civil rights advocates, however, warned that the program’s reinstatement threatened to inflame tensions in minority communities where such equipment has been deployed in the past. “It is both exceptionally dangerous and irresponsible for the administration to lift the ban on the transfer of certain surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement organizations,” said Janai Nelson, associate director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “Just a few summers ago, our nation watched as Ferguson raised the specter of increased police militarization. The law enforcement response there and in too many places across the country demonstrated how perilous, especially for black and brown communities, a militarized police force can be.”
The change is the latest tweak to an old Defense Department program originally intended for counter-drug operations. From NBC:
After the Justice Department concluded that the use of military-style equipment made matters worse in Ferguson, President Obama put some equipment off limits — including tracked armored vehicles, bayonets, and grenade launchers — and required a showing of need for tactical vehicles with wheels. Law enforcement officials said Monday that many police departments used the bayonets as utility knives and did not mount them on rifles. And grenade launching tubes were used to fire non-lethal projectiles such as tear gas and bean bags.
