The 1033 excess property program re-distributes military equipment to police departments.

There’s a federal program that distributes surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies. Georgia is fifth overall, for the amount its police have received – more than $70 million worth of free gear. That’s according to a national comparison by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The gear ranges from socks all the way up to mine-resistant vehicles used in desert combat. It’s all courtesy of the U.S. military, through its 1033 excess property program.

As a small town police chief in New York, Frank Rotondo said he remembers the first time he heard about the program.

“I wasn’t aware of the program and someone said ‘hey, I think we can get some stuff,” and I said ‘well, what kind of stuff?’” said Rotondo

He said he ended up taking a safe, barely used, back to the station. This was many years before he became head of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police. Rotondo said budgets are always tight for local law enforcement, and the 1033 program is a win-win for them and the military.

“They look for a way rather than to take Humvees and crush them for scrap metal, to put them to a better use,” said Rotondo.

In Georgia alone, police have a dozen mine-resistant vehicles and nearly 4,000 rifles, including M16 assault rifles and 12-gauge shotguns. The Pew Trust research said they’re all examples of the increased militarization of American police. But, Rotondo said to remember that some of that $70 million worth of gear is boots and flashlights.

“Of course it’s not just boots,” said Maria Haberfeld, chair of law and police science at John Jay College.

Haberfeld said anyone who’s concerned about the 1033 program shouldn’t just focus on the kinds of equipment, but on how it’s used and against whom.

Back around when the 1033 program began in 1991, she visited a police chief in South Carolina and noticed something in the back yard.

“So I asked him, you know, ‘What are you going to do with this tank? Why does a civilian police department need a tank?’ He said ‘you never know.’” said Haberfeld.

She asked if he or anyone in his police department know how to operate that tank. The answer was no.

“But it was there. It was there in the backyard,” said Haberfeld.

Georgia’s coordinator for the 1033 program says that by the end of this year, the Law Enforcement Support Office will develop official protocols for training police to use equipment they get from the military.