Troops officially came home from Iraq on Dec. 31, 2011, but they were coming back in a steady stream since 2010, and they were bringing their equipment with them.

The website Public Intelligence diagrams the stark increase in military dollars transferred to our federal, state and local law enforcement agencies from 2010.



The amount in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 came to about $223 million, then in 2011, with withdrawal from Iraq in the air, that amount more than doubled to $498 million.

The slated amount for 2012 is about $558 million, but Public Intelligence notes "As of June 30, equipment transfers for FY2012 are on a course to top $550 million in total acquisition value, more than a fifth of the total value of all equipment transferred by the program since the early 1990s."

Public Intelligence gets all of it's numbers publicly from the Defense Logistics Agency and The Department of Defense's Law Enforcement Support Office.

Presumably, one has to assert that this "equipment transfer" isn't proportionate to an increase in criminal activity here at home.

So then, what does our domestic law enforcement need all of this military-grade equipment for?