The first time Elbert County Sheriff Shayne Heap walked into the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) at Fort Carson, he felt as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.

“It was amazing; I was blown away by it all,” he said.

As part of the Department of Defense’s 1033 Surplus Property Program, local law enforcement agencies can request refurbished, unused or overstocked military property from the government. If the request is approved by local and national officials, sheriffs like Heap can take their shopping lists to DRMO locations like Fort Carson and load up.

The wide assortment of goodies, many of which were used in conflicts in the Middle East, range from gym equipment to golf carts, from generators to earthmovers. The items can be ordered online, sight unseen, but savvy shoppers like Heap know better.

“They may say that a Jeep that came from Iraq is in ‘good’ condition,” Heap said. “That could mean it only has three bullet holes in it instead of 17.”

For Heap and other local officers working with limited resources, the program is a godsend: He’s acquired refrigerators that would normally cost $10,000 for nothing.

“You’re saving so much of your budget,” Heap said. “It’s not like we’re going out and getting flamethrowers.”

According to The Associated Press, citing government sources, programs like the 1033 distributed about $420 million worth of equipment last year. In May, after paying only the cost of shipping it from a DRMO in Texas, the sheriff of Page County, Va., received a mine-resistant armored vehicle with a list price of $733,000.

Law enforcement officers in Weld County can climb into their own armored Humvee as well.

“I guess the sheriff felt we really needed it,” said County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer.

Increasingly, that’s the question that’s being asked: How much of the hardware is really necessary?

Programs like the 1033 are generating controversy, particularly in the wake of last month’s events in Ferguson, Mo., where armored vehicles rolled through the streets following protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown.

The image was so strong that one of Missouri’s U.S. senators, Claire McCaskill, called for an investigation of federal programs like the 1033; on Tuesday, the senator led a hearing in Washington, D.C., to address the accountability of the programs.

In the wake of Ferguson, McCaskill called for local officials to “demilitarize” local police response. However, indications are that law enforcement officials all across the country are happy to have the equipment on hand.

The New York Times, citing data acquired from the Pentagon, says local jurisdictions have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.

According to the newspaper, sheriff’s departments and other agencies in Colorado have gobbled up their fair share. According to The Times, which mapped out the allotment held by counties across the state, Elbert County has 27 assault rifles, seven pistols, eight night-vision pieces and two armored vehicles — all courtesy of the federal government.

Fremont County, which extends from just east of Salida to just west of Pueblo, with a population of just under 47,000, has, according to The Times, 34 assault rifles, 31 body armor pieces, two grenade launchers, a mine-resistant vehicle and two other armored vehicles.

Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said it has been “several years” since the department has taken any equipment from the 1033 program. Jackson said former Chief Gerry Whitman made the decision to stop the department’s participation and that it has not been resumed under current Chief Robert White.

“I know there can be danger anywhere, and I don’t want to take away from that part of a law enforcement officer’s job, but I don’t know that it can get that dangerous in Fremont County that they need all of that military equipment,” said Denise Maes, the director of public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

Ferguson impact

Under the rules for the 1033 program, each state designates an agency to process the local equipment requests. In Colorado, that’s the Department of Public Safety. Lance Clem, a department spokesman, acknowledges that sensitivities have been heightened in the wake of Ferguson.

“Some of the equipment looks foreboding, no question about it,” Clem said. “And there are issues — someone might ask if we want our cities looking like there’s an Army out on the streets.

“But local jurisdictions are getting equipment that they normally wouldn’t get, things that wouldn’t be available to them given their budgets, that are being used in hazardous situations. And if it’s just going to sit around, isn’t this a better use for it?”

While quibbling with the accuracy of The Times’ numbers, Mark Techmeyer, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said that criminals increasingly are gaining access to their own sophisticated weaponry.

“We have to have the tools to be able to take care of whatever’s out there,” Techmeyer said.

According to Heap, sometimes taking care of a problem means being creative. While the department has an armored Hummer, its main use is to rescue citizens trapped in heavy snows, or whose cars have been washed out in rain storms.

“It looks like an old Brinks truck,” Heap said of his armored vehicle.

“I think the last time we used it on a police call was down near Pueblo; there was a former federal agent who reportedly was holed up with a rifle. This was someone trained like we are, so I didn’t want my people walking around out in the open. We used it so we could get them back in the area where he was located.”

“Having this stuff lets me sleep at night,” Heap continued. “Everybody’s sensitive because of Ferguson, but we aren’t militarizing the streets — what we use this stuff for, that can’t be farther from the truth.”

Maes and the ACLU would disagree. The surplus equipment programs initially came to its attention during the 2008 Democratic National Convention when it requested — and later sued — the city of Denver for purchase records amid reports that $50 million in crowd-control equipment had been acquired.

According to the ACLU, there were concerns that the city had bought a “sonic ray gun” for crowd-control purposes similar to one that the New York Police Department allegedly acquired in preparation for the 2004 Republican Convention.

Today, the ACLU says it’s concerned about how and where all the equipment across the county is being used. According to a national study it conducted, law enforcement agencies have become increasingly emboldened by the new equipment, and are using it to help execute simple warrants — often in neighborhoods of color.

“The problem is when officers have weapons like this, they’re more apt to use them,” Maes said. “If these departments had to allocate their own funds to buy them, none of them would have them, so to say that they really need them is disingenuous.”

Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292, acotton @denverpost.com twitter.com/ anthonycottondp