Sarah Okeson

News-Leader

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt met with area law enforcement authorities Wednesday in a closed-door meeting and afterward spoke in support of a federal program that provides surplus military equipment to police.

That program, known as the 1033 program, has been widely criticized in the wake of police response to protesters in Ferguson.

Blunt, R-Missouri, who is co-chair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, said the federal government shouldn't be in a position where it dictates when police can wear helmets and what type of uniforms they wear.

"You don't want to have to call Washington, D.C., and say, 'Should I put my helmet on? I'm about to walk into a building where I think there's a shooter," Blunt said.

He met with about a dozen law enforcement officials, including Police Chief Paul Williams and Webster County Sheriff Roye Cole, at the Greene County Public Safety Center in Springfield. The meeting was one of several that Blunt has held with state and local law enforcement officials in Missouri.

Blunt said the equipment police used in Ferguson was defensive, not offensive. He also said that Ferguson got its equipment from Homeland Security, not the military surplus program.

"I've seen the bullet marks in bulletproof equipment and know that that equipment saved the lives of police and others," Blunt said.

Blunt's fellow senator, Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, recently held a hearing in Washington on the surplus military equipment program and has questioned whether the program has enough oversight. Blunt said the hearing raised a legitimate question about 39 percent of the equipment in the program that has never been used.

But Blunt questioned what would happen to the surplus equipment if if isn't offered to law governments first.

"Are you going to sell them to a warlord somewhere in South America?" he asked.

Cole, the Webster County sheriff, said Webster County has two Humvees and a trailer that deputies use at the police range to haul equipment.

"It comes in handy for law enforcement," Cole said.

Williams, the Springfield police chief, said Springfield hasn't participated much in the surplus military program. He said the only equipment he can think of the agency has from the program is a small armored vehicle that is about 20 years old. Springfield does have a Bearcat, an armored vehicle, but the agency got that through a different federal program.

Williams said the federal military surplus program is a good program for smaller law enforcement agencies without a lot of money.