President Barack Obama's new limits on the types of military-style gear that can be used by U.S. police forces could restrict the very equipment that some Michiana departments have stockpiled over the past 10 years, though area officials said they did not expect the new rules to force dramatic changes.
In an announcement Monday, Obama banned police departments from obtaining certain types of surplus military hardware that had been provided by the U.S. government through the so-called “1033 program.” Other types of gear would become more difficult to acquire.
As The Tribune reported last year, police departments throughout Michiana have acquired hundreds of thousands of dollars of gear such as armored troop carriers, Humvees, M-16 rifles, night-vision scopes, bayonets and camouflage fatigues through the government program, going back to at least 2006.
Obama's announcement came nine months after police in Ferguson, Mo., drew attention by responding to protests with military-style vehicles and riot gear. Critics say that type of hardware shows how police have become too militaristic in appearance and behavior, but police officials argue they simply need to have heavy equipment on hand to prepare for worst-case scenarios.
"There's a lot of types of equipment we get that you may think are militarized, but we haven't had to use them yet because those situations haven't arisen," Walkerton Police Chief Matthew Schalliol said. "Let's hope it's not going to limit departments' access to that type of stuff."
Obama’s executive order banned police departments from getting grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vehicles, and firearms and ammunition of .50 caliber or greater.