In the now well-established pattern of military technology and equipment creeping eventually into standard domestic law enforcement, Texas police are receiving military-grade tanks from the Department of Defense's surplus supplies.

The Dallas Observer reported that the Dallas Couty sheriff’s office obtained a 19-ton, diesel-operated military tank with bullet-proof doors and tires, designed by Navistar Defense. Just in case Texas cops need defense from ballistic arms fire, mine blasts, IEDs and the like. A number of domestic police forces own BearCat tanks; 16,000-pound armored leviathans.

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In his ongoing reporting on the creeping militarization of U.S. police forces, HuffPo's Radley Balko sees a corollary between the hyping of the "war on drugs" in recent decades, the rise of "tough on crime" political posturing and police militarization. He told Vice in an interview that there's little political will to contain the increasing militarization of police, the sees Robocop-style SWAT teams with army vehicles increasingly become the norm for domestic policing: