Move reverses a ban imposed by President Obama in 2015.

Police can once again access armored personnel carries and other military style gear.

Police say the equipment is necessary for officer safety.

Local police are cheering a decision by the Trump administration to lift a ban on certain types of military equipment being provided to law enforcement, but civil libertarians worry it sends the wrong message.

"I applaud that," said Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham, whose department was forced to return an armored personnel carrier in 2015 after the ban took effect. "This equipment wasn't brought out to intimidate, it was brought out to protect and serve. It was all about the safety of the officers."

But an American Civil Liberties Union official called it a "bad step."

"We're very worried that this signals to law enforcement that they can operate more as a militarized force, and they are really going to ignore some of the gains we've made over the past couple years," said Shelli Weisberg, political director for the ACLU of Michigan.

"We're very concerned about it."

In 2015, President Barack Obama signed an executive order denying police access to some surplus military equipment, including tracked armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms and large-caliber weapons and ammunition.

"In most cases, it's not the equipment, it's how it's used," said Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, who supports the repeal. "There are appropriate uses for most of that equipment, but it also can be abused. There are times when this equipment is used for intimidation purposes, and that's a leadership issue."

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the repeal is overdue and was based on false impressions of how police were using the equipment.

"There isn't a police department in America that is launching fragmentation grenades," Bouchard said. "There isn't a police department in America that is fixing bayonets."

Bouchard said the grenade launchers are shotgun-sized devices that police use to fire tear gas or flares. His department did accept bayonets when they were available.

"They come with a scabbard that was useful for cutting wires and even seat belts," Bouchard said, adding that deputies used them mostly in first aid kits. The only bayonets attached to weapons were chrome-plated versions that were used by honor guards for ceremonial purposes, the sheriff said.

The equipment ban came in wake of rioting in Ferguson, Mo., where the police were accused of paramilitary-type responses to protests after the fatal shooting of an unarmed teen by a police officer. Republican members of Michigan's congressional delegation criticized the ban at the time, arguing that it punished all police for the irresponsible actions of a few.

Since 2006, Michigan authorities have received more than $43 million worth of surplus military equipment, including 17 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles or MRAPs, under the program, which was designed to beef up law enforcement agencies with equipment no longer needed for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Other items obtained by Michigan police agencies included 1,795 M16 rifles, the U.S. military’s combat weapon of choice; 696 M14 rifles; 530 bayonets and scabbards; 165 utility trucks; thirty-two 12-gauge, riot-type shotguns; nine grenade launchers, and three observation helicopters.

Some of the materials went to small towns with little crime. Dundee police, who patrol a village of about 4,000 residents in Monroe County, got a mine-resistant ambush vehicle. In 2014, the Free Press reported that residents in the tiny western Michigan town of Barry Township were questioning why their police department, with just four full-time officers, had two Humvees and two armored personnel carriers from the Department of Defense.

Robert Stevenson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, said most of this equipment is already commercially available to police agencies with the money to buy it. The program merely saved them the expense by giving them second-hand items for free from the military, he said.

"We think the original ban was sort of a knee-jerk reaction to what was happening in Ferguson and how that was characterized," Stevenson said.

Police say they need military-grade weapons to counter heavily armed drug dealers, mass shooters and terrorists. Armored vehicles can be used against barricaded gunmen to evacuate citizens in emergencies or to quell riots, while high-powered, automatic rifles keep police from being outgunned by bad guys.

Napoleon said his office can't afford a helicopter so it must ask Detroit or the Michigan State Police for assistance when it needs eyes in the skies. Armored vehicles also make sense for police for defensive purposes, he said.

"There are armored vehicles on our streets every day protecting money," Napoleon said. "To use an armored vehicle to protect officers and citizens only makes sense."

When a new list of equipment becomes available, Napoleon said he'll be checking it to see what pieces make sense for his deputies.

Before the ban, local sheriffs had received armored personnel carrier equipped with rubber tracks to avoid damaging pavement. When they were forced to return them, Macomb County bought its own.

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Wickersham said Macomb County spent about $350,000 on a Lenco Bearcat, an armored vehicle used to transport a SWAT team into situations where they might be shot at as they approach. It's equipped with tires rather than treads, and it's typically used when a shooter is barricaded, he said.

Stevenson acknowledged that the sight of a tank-like vehicle in a neighborhood can be unsettling for residents. "The optics are better without a half-track on it," Stevenson said.

But Bouchard said the tracks get a bad name, as well.

"There are departments around the country that deal with deep sand or deep snow, and they use the track vehicles as rescue vehicles," Bouchard said.

A 2014 report by the American Civil Liberties Union found that police departments nationwide were increasingly using military tactics and weapons for such routine matters as serving search warrants, sometimes with deadly results. Among incidents cited in the report:

■ The critical wounding of a 19-month-old Wisconsin boy in May 2014 when a flash-bang grenade, long ago adopted from the military by SWAT teams, landed in his crib at a relative’s home in Georgia. Police were executing a no-knock warrant to search for a relative over a $50 drug sale.

■ The 2010 death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, of Detroit, who was struck by a bullet from an officer’s gun as she slept on a couch during a Detroit police raid. Police in SWAT gear used a flash-bang grenade in that raid, too. They were looking for a murder suspect, who was found in the upper level of the duplex.

■ The shooting of a pregnant woman, 26, who had her 14-month-old son in her arms in 2008 when a SWAT team broke down the front door of her rented home in Lima, Ohio, and opened fire. They were looking for her boyfriend on suspicion of drug dealing.

“We found through our investigation the use of paramilitary weapons and tactics causes serious problems for undermining public confidence,” said Kara Dansky, senior counsel for the ACLU and the author of the report, which looked at 800 SWAT raids by law enforcement agencies in 20 states and the agencies’ acquisition of military equipment. “Overly militarized police view people in the community as the enemy,” Dansky said.

Under the program, police agencies were able to browse electronically the items the military no longer needed and even check them out before agreeing to take them, Stevenson said.

Wickersham said he's happy the ban has been lifted and thinks it could help departments across Michigan and the country, but is not sure it makes much difference for Macomb County right now.

"At this point, we would look at what type of equipment is available if there is a need," Wickersham said. "Right now, I can't think of anything offhand but as these lists come out, my staff is always reviewing them."

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com. On Twitter @jwisely.