Dustin Racioppi

@dracioppi

Since 2006%2C the Department of Defense has issued %248.8 million in tactical items to law enforcement in New Jersey

Monmouth and Ocean counties took in %245.3 million of those items

Civil unrest in Missouri has prompted closer scrutiny of the military surplus program%2C which has opened to all law enforcement in 1997

The six-wheeled, 18-ton Caiman mine-resistant vehicle was a rugged guardian of soldiers from roadside bombs and enemy attacks in the war zones of Iraq the last several years.

Take our poll: Do you think the military surplus program is necessary?

Now one sits off Route 35 south in the parking lot of the Middletown town hall, painted white and trimmed in the red and blue of the police department.

The massive vehicle, valued at more than $400,000, is just one of roughly $3 million worth of items Middletown has received over the years from the Department of Defense through a surplus program that supplies military gear to towns at virtually no cost.

See the full list of what local counties received.

Images of civil unrest and police in fatigues and riot gear in Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer on Aug. 9, have put a spotlight on the Defense Department program, which was created in 1990 to help in the War on Drugs and opened up to all law enforcement in 1997 to "assist in their arrest and apprehension mission," according to the Defense Logistics Agency, which administers the program.

New Jersey towns have taken advantage of the program all along, but the Jersey Shore dwarfs all others in terms of the value of military gear funneling to local police, according to an analysis of Department of Defense data supplied to the Asbury Park Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

Since 2006, the Defense Department has issued $8.8 million in tactical items — not just mine-resistant vehicles, but also helicopters, grenade launchers and military-grade rifles — to law enforcement agencies in New Jersey, according to the data. The department identifies only counties, not towns, who receive tactical items. Of that valued $8.8 million, Monmouth and Ocean counties took in a combined $5.3 million in gear, the data shows.

Though the two counties accounted for most of the value, the 346 tactical items received were not the most. Essex County has received 903 items since 2006, including two helicopters and five bomb removal robots, valued at $1.75 million, according to the data.

In just the last year the Defense Department has supplied more than 15,000 general supply items — from cargo trucks to power generators — valued at $14.6 million to 42 agencies in New Jersey, according to the data. Twenty-eight of those agencies were in Monmouth and Ocean counties, and they received more than 4,500 of those items, which had a value of $11.5 million, according to the data.

The department does not track depreciation, so value is based on the original acquisition of the items.

Critics of the program say it has transformed local police departments into imposing, militarized forces, and Attorney General Eric Holder, who visited Ferguson on Wednesday, said in a statement last week he is "deeply concerned" that equipping local police with military supplies "sends a conflicting message."

But many law enforcement and municipal officials view the program, casually known as 1033, as a blessing amid budget constraints and reduced resources, and say that much of the negative attention has been focused on weaponry and military gear while the more mundane items, like office equipment and radios that are used more regularly, have been overlooked.

"It's surplus stuff. So if it's surplus stuff, they either cut it up and scrap it or they send it overseas. Or they could use it to supply local governments for things that they might not otherwise be able to afford," said Anthony P. Mercantante, the town administrator in Middletown, which has also received Humvees, binoculars, generators and digital cameras in addition to the mine-resistant vehicle, which he says is to be used only for water rescues. "Seems to me, from a taxpayer standpoint, that that's a home run."

But critics say there's also a danger posed to taxpayers whose police departments gather military items, often quietly and with little scrutiny. The 1033 program designates one coordinator for each state who reviews applications for gear, but there is no training required once they receive the items. The coordinator for New Jersey is State Police Sgt. Glenn Garibaldi, who could not be reached for comment.

There's also worry that in the long run there is a damaging cultural shift from police being community peacekeepers to imposing commandos.

"We've never seen Ocean County or Monmouth County as war zones. These are not war zones. These are not battlefields," said Ari Rosmarin, Public Policy Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which earlier this month urged the Bergen County Sheriff's Office to withdraw a request to the Pentagon for two mine-resistant vehicles. "The more our law enforcement agencies shift thinking of themselves as warriors, I think we're going to see more and more troubling consequences in communities."

That is not the view from the ranks of local police.

Middletown received its mine-resistant vehicle last October after losing three new police patrol cars in Tropical Storm Irene, and suffering heavy damage to two five-ton cargo trucks it had used to rescue victims of superstorm Sandy, Sgt. William Colangelo said.

"This is the vehicle that's going to take us into higher winds, higher water," he said.

In Eatontown, the 1033 program recently supplied four Humvees now being used by the police and public works departments. The higher and wider wheelbase of the boxy vehicles is ideal for rescuing people from flooded or heavily snow-covered areas, Detective Lt. Lawrence J. Tyler said.

"There's no big tactical advantage," he said.

Keansburg, a bayshore town prone to flooding, received three Humvees and three five-ton transport trucks for high-water rescues, Deputy Police Chief Michael Pigott said, to replace two similar trucks and a school bus that were used in Tropical Storm Irene and superstorm Sandy. The department also received a power generator, he said.

"It's not because we want to have a toy to carry around, it's in case we need it," Pigott said.

There is a wide array of items available: night vision goggles and riot shields flow to towns along with chainsaws and office cubicles. Monmouth County has shown a demand for Humvees, receiving 60 of them since 2012, according Defense Department data. Ocean County, on the other hand, seems to prefer firepower, taking in 73 M-16 rifles and 47 M-14s since 2006, according to the data.

The two counties have also taken in far less sensational items: Lakehurst got 89 safety cones; Red Bank got 50 cots, Middletown got 35 first aid kits and in Spring Lake they stocked up with 378 clamps that cost 82 cents apiece.

Flooding that reached parts of Main Street when Sandy struck was the reason Belmar signed on to the 1033 program, and "we've taken full advantage," Mayor Matt Doherty said. The borough has received $1.75 million in general supplies, according to the Defense Department data, including 23 generators, "several Humvees," Doherty said, and a large tractor that is parked near the beach to move sand.

"It's not all what you see with guys in riot gear, flash grenades and tear gas," Doherty said. "I mean, we use it to level out the beach that middle-class people lay out on. For us, it's been a great program."

Ocean County Sheriff Michael G. Mastronardy said the events in Ferguson have spurred unfair criticisms of the program. There was little attention paid the past 20 years while police received these military items, he said, and equipment like night-vision goggles have proven beneficial in drug surveillance and burglary investigations. He also said that the concern about the program is "not necessarily about the equipment, it's utilization of the equipment."

"Do you need an armored car or vehicle? Well, you know what, if you have a hostage situation and your family is the one being held, I think you might want one — at least available. It doesn't mean every department needs one up and down the Jersey Shore," Mastronardy said.

Jim Fisher, a retired professor of criminal justice at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, dismisses such arguments, as well as ones about using military vehicles for water rescues, as "fear-mongering raised to an art" and "creating a problem for the solution."

"Were it not for the police we'd all be raped, robbed, murdered, plundered, which is absolutely absurd," said Fisher, who is also a former FBI agent and criminal investigator.

Colangelo, of the Middletown police, said a majority of the equipment distributed in the program is general supplies, or non-tactical. And it all ultimately serves taxpayers.

"They paid for it, and guess what, they're getting their money's worth," he said.

Although towns get the military surplus for free, they do have to pay for shipping and transportation costs. Middletown, for example, spent about $5,000 to get its mine-resistant vehicle, Mercantante said. And towns are responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and any insurance costs of the equipment, which Fisher believes, as departments hire fewer officers, is "a complete misapplication of dwindling public funds."

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-NJ, has similar thoughts. He said on Tuesday he believes the federal COPS program, which provides grant money to local police like Asbury Park and Long Branch to hire more officers for community policing, is "the model for what the federal government should be doing to help local police forces."

"Have the police on the beat, walking the streets, working with the community," Pallone said. "To me, this military surplus program, I question whether we need it."

President Barack Obama said on Monday that the 1033 program and others that supply military equipment to towns will come under review. Rosmarin, of the ACLU, which earlier this year published a report on what it believes is excessive militarization of police, said it is past time for a broad discussion of local police policy.

"There are a lot of consequences that come from the winding down of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think this is one that has not received enough attention," he said. "We've talked about soldiers coming home and the attention that they need, and we've talked about foreign policy and the fallout from the wars there, but this idea of police departments and law enforcement agencies across the country gradually morphing into military units is a trend that everybody needs to be paying a lot more attention to."

Dustin Racioppi: 732-643-4028; dracioppi@app.com

Since its inception, the 1033 program has funneled more than $5.1 billion worth of property to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states. In 2013 alone the Department of Defense transferred $449,309 to law enforcement.

'It's not because we want to have a toy to carry around, it's in case we need it.' — Keansburg Deputy Police Chief Michael Pigott