Closer to homeWALK THE LINEChattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher has championed community-based policing since he started in June. He’s constantly working on ways to help police officers build positive relationships with community members. But police still need to be equipped to deal with serious threats, he said during a Times Free Press editorial board meeting Friday.The department has some militarylike equipment, like a BearCat – an armored, heavy-duty vehicle – but Fletcher said that truck is necessary in certain situations.”If someone wanted to make it appear militaristic, they certainly could,” he said. “But the vehicle is designed to do things like rescue children who are involved with an active shooter. It is resistant to firearms, so we can put it between an active shooter and a victim to rescue them.”He said he hopes solid community policing can help prevent situations like the violence in Ferguson, Mo.”What I’ve always done is involve the community before there is a crisis, and we’re committed to doing that here as well,” he said.
Who’s getting military gear?The New York Times on Aug. 15 published a database showing, county by county for the entire United States, how much military gear has been distributed to local law enforcement since 2006.TENNESSEEBledsoe: 5 assault riflesBradley: 42 assault rifles, 106 pistols, 1 armored vehicleFranklin: 13 assault rifles, 22 pistols, 5 shotguns, 8 night-vision pieces, 2 body armor piecesGrundy: 2 assault riflesHamilton: 21 assault rifles, 4 night-vision piecesMarion: 1 assault rifle, 5 pistolsMcMinn: 110 assault rifles, 72 pistolsMeigs: 3 night-vision piecesMonroe: 20 assault rifles, 10 shotgunsPolk: 4 assault riflesRhea: 5 assault riflesSequatchie: 10 night-vision piecesGEORGIACatoosa: 13 assault riflesChattooga: 4 assault rifles, 2 pistols, 9 shotgunsDade: 4 assault riflesWalker: 15 assault rifles, 5 body armor pieces, 5 shotguns, 3 night-vision pieces, 1 armored vehicleWhitfield: 10 assault rifles, 2 pistolsALABAMADeKalb: 2 assault rifles, 1 pistol, 137 night-vision piecesJackson: 10 assault rifles, 2 pistols
WASHINGTON – The Missouri police department at the center of an uproar over the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager acquired two armored Humvees and other military gear for free through a Pentagon program that critics blame for “militarizing America’s Main Streets” and aggravating clashes between police and protesters.
The Ferguson Police Department received the two Humvees as well as a generator and a flatbed trailer under the surplus equipment program run by the Defense Logistics Agency, which is in charge of getting supplies of all types for the military.
News footage and photos of police outfitted in paramilitary gear clashing with protesters in Ferguson – a largely black suburb of St. Louis with a mostly white police force – have provided new impetus to efforts to rein in the Pentagon program. It provides assault weapons and other surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies across the country.