by G.W. Shultz, California Watch
Local police will temporarily be barred from receiving free surplus Defense Department weapons until state governments can prove they've adequately kept track of an array of military equipment – including armored vehicles, computers, tactical gear and more – handed over through a special program.
Federal officials attribute the one-time nationwide inventory in part to recent stories from California Watch and The Arizona Republic and state-by-state inquiries made by the Associated Press into oversight of the program, created by Congress during the 1990s to help police in the wars on drugs and terror.
California Watch reported in March that agencies in the Golden State had snapped up more in cast-off military goods during 2011 than any other year in the program's two-decade history. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department acquires an average of $4 million to $5 million annually in excess gear and uses four long-haul semitrailers to crisscross the country picking it all up.
Michelle McCaskill, spokeswoman for the Defense Logistics Agency, said in an email that her office wants state coordinators of the program to certify their inventories of “weapons, and in some cases, other specified kinds of property.” McCaskill said it’s unclear how long the inventory will take, but weapons will not be issued until the requested information is received and verified.