"Our expectation is that local departments who tell us they know what the regulations are are indeed following them," he said. "If we receive information that a local agency is not in compliance, we will look into that."

A spokesman for the State Police, which is charged with overseeing the program in Massachusetts, said the department generally follows program rules, conducting regular audits to make sure the weapons haven't gone missing and ensuring the guns are properly registered. But the spokesman, David Procopio, said the department also trusts local law enforcement agencies to follow the rules on their own.

Federal officials say none of the weapons have been reported stolen or used in a crime. But Ken MacNevin, spokesman for the US Defense Reutilization & Marketing Service, said the agency still expects the state to strictly adhere to federal regulations.

"You're in a small town, you're working with one or two officers, all it would take is one emotionally disturbed person with a deer rifle" to create a violent crisis, said Wellfleet Police Chief Richard P. Rosenthal, whose department received three surplus M-14s but then shelved them and bought lighter-weight M-4s for its officers. "The only thing we would have had is a shotgun."

"You never know what's going to happen. Anything can happen, anywhere," said Mark Laverdure, the police chief in Clinton, a town on the Wachusett Reservoir in Central Massachusetts that ordered 18 assault rifles from the government earlier this year.

But many of the departments said they were taking advantage of free weaponry in the event they might need it to ward off terrorists or stop a shooting rampage.

"Is this a war zone?" said Kevin M. Mullins, 25, who works at a Belmont bookshop. "For what logical purpose do they need semiautomatic rifles in Belmont?"

In one suburban town, Belmont, people who live and work there were surprised to learn of the presence of six M-14s.

And a Globe review of a dozen departments found that most did not notify their community of the acquisitions. It also found inconsistencies in how the program is monitored, including cases in which communities received more guns than allowed.

Some 82 local police departments in Massachusetts have obtained more than 1,000 weapons over the last 15 years under a federal program that distributes surplus guns from the US military, the Globe reported earlier this month. Now, new information identifies which communities received the weapons: They range from small towns like Hamilton, Marblehead, and Wayland to more populous communities like Worcester, Framingham, and Revere.

Police in Wellfleet, a community known for stunning beaches and succulent oysters, scored three military assault rifles. At Salem State College, where recent police calls have included false fire alarms and a goat roaming the campus, school police got two M-16s. In West Springfield, police acquired even more powerful weaponry: two military-issue M-79 grenade launchers.

According to the Globe review, some departments got more arms than federal regulations allow. In some cases, the state has not enforced requirements that the arms be put to use within a year or returned to the military. And the state also failed to renew its contract with the federal government to oversee distribution of the weapons, after its lead coordinator retired three years ago.

Governor Deval Patrick's administration said it launched a review of the program after the Globe inquiries.

"The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security is reviewing the state's role in this program to ensure effective and appropriate oversight is being applied," said Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the agency.

Procopio said a civilian employee has been overseeing the program since the lead coordinator, a State Police lieutenant colonel, retired. He said the department expects to have a new oversight contract with the federal government signed in the near future.

The US military surplus program has provided 1,068 weapons to police departments in Massachusetts since 1994, including 486 fully automatic M-16 machine guns and 564 M-14 semiautomatic rifles, according to records withheld by State Police but later provided by the Defense Reutilization & Marketing Service. Most of the M-16s have been modified to perform like semiautomatic rifles, firing only one bullet at a time, instead of rapidly spraying rounds.

Many local police officials said they ordered the weapons to prepare for a catastrophic event like the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in 1999, when two teens used automatic weapons to gun down students, and a bank robbery in Los Angeles in 1997 when two robbers with automatic rifles injured 10 police officers in a shootout. More recently, terrorists armed with automatic weapons and grenades killed 166 people in Mumbai last November.

"We really see this as an essential tool that we have that allows us to respond to that kind of incident," Bridgewater State College Police Chief David Tillinghast said.

Some police chiefs said the price tag - or lack thereof - also influenced their decisions. "With budgets the way they are, any time we can get something with no dollar signs attached to it, we have to take a long, hard look at it," said Wayland Police Chief Robert Irving, whose department ordered three M-16s in February.

Departments are deploying the weapons in various ways. Some equipped only specialized SWAT officers with the rifles. Some issued them to patrol officers who keep them locked in cruisers. Others keep the weapons locked in stations, ready for distribution in emergencies.