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At this link there is a way to see what excess military equipment various law enforcement agencies have received from the DoD via the now famous (infamous?) 1033 program.

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/ ... -giveaway/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Man, my county (Guadalupe) is way behind. No MRAPS, no helicopters, no NVGs -- in fact, all I can find is the Seguin PD got two 5.56 rifles. I don't see any of our other towns or cities on the list. New Braunfels is really in Comal county, butoverlaps our county a little bit, but all they got were a five .45 pistols and a couple utility trucks. I also note that the list for "Texas" actually includes a lot of federal agencies that are located in Texas, like the INS and the Border Patrol.

Compare with "Since 2006, police in Winthrop Harbor, Ill., a village of 6,700 along the shore of Lake Michigan, has received 10 helicopters, one mine-resistant armored vehicle and two Humvees, and other equipment, worth more than $6.5 million."

I'd like to see where those helicopters are today...

Austin PD picked up quite a bit more. $2M worth. Only one helicopter tho.


ETA: The IRS in El Paso got one night vision sight. ??

With what it costs to operate a helicopter, Winthrop Harbor would have a few options:
1) Go broke maintaining them, even if they're not flying.
2) Lease them out for other purposes and try to break even.
3) Scrap them and sell them off for parts.


This is a great quote:
"....You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department’s surplus equipment program. "

Good choice there!

Collin County seems to have acquired 6 .45 pistols which are valued at $359 (total). If the county needs to raise funds, I'd cheerfully give them $120 for one of them... :-)

Gads ELB! This is the most fascinating link I've read in a long time! A real eye opener. Thanks for posting!

Looking at what some of the cities/counties/pd's, etc. received, you'd think they were outfitting their staff for overseas combat. Everything but the guns. The most interesting item I've come across so far comes out of the San Angelo P.D. :

CARRIER,AIR-ANTITANK DEFENSE MISSILE SYSTEM 1 $393,062.00
CARRIER,COMMAND POST 1 $88,868.00

Huh??? What's that about?

I wonder with all these purchases/giveaways when that stuff will start disappearing into the hands of the employees/friends, etc? The big stuff no, of course not. But the smaller items(bayonets, binoculars, body armor, sleeping bags,etc.)

cb1000rider wrote:This is a great quote:
"....You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department’s surplus equipment program. "

Good choice there!

Depending on the launcher, that could actually be practical; I know there are some pretty good non-lethal options for the M79 that would be handy next time they have riots.

KD5NRH wrote:

cb1000rider wrote:This is a great quote:
"....You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department’s surplus equipment program. "

Good choice there!

Depending on the launcher, that could actually be practical; I know there are some pretty good non-lethal options for the M79 that would be handy next time they have riots.

A -6 gauge single shot quail gun?

Does the equipment come with free training?

How about these:

Longview Police: 30 bayonets? OK, I guess its hand-to-hand law enforcement in East Texas?

How about Dallas PD: 100 5.56 mm rifles. Wanna bet they're all fully automatic?
And there are bunches of 7.62 mm rifles. Yeah, I'm thinking automatics also.

Some stuff is OK. I'd rather they auction to the US citizenry and get some of our money back with the hardware going to us as well.
Win-win.

LabRat

My county didn't get anything.

However the neighboring county just down the street did fairly well.

-
ANDERSON COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE
$735,211.36


Item

Quantity

Total Value


MINE RESISTANT VEHICLE 1 $733,000.00
PISTOL,CALIBER .45,AUTOMATIC 16 $939.36
RIFLE,5.56 MILLIMETER 6 $720.00
RIFLE,7.62 MILLIMETER 4 $552.00

joe817 wrote:
CARRIER,AIR-ANTITANK DEFENSE MISSILE SYSTEM 1 $393,062.00
CARRIER,COMMAND POST 1 $88,868.00

Huh??? What's that about?

Those are likely vehicles, some kind of truck chassis with a special unit mounted on it. A large box with electrical connections for the command post. I doubt actual missiles came with the other one, but I would think it a bit expensive to convert it to something useful.

joe817 wrote:
I wonder with all these purchases/giveaways when that stuff will start disappearing into the hands of the employees/friends, etc? The big stuff no, of course not. But the smaller items(bayonets, binoculars, body armor, sleeping bags,etc. )

Actually I worry more about the big stuff. No way I can see that small town in Illinois doing legit things with 10 helicopters. Ima thinkin' someone is in the resale business....

Overall I am much less worried about departments picking some rifles and pistols and binocs etc commensurate with their size and population, but some of them do seem to be going above and beyond the call of need. And I still wonder which IRS agent in El Paso has a NV sight.

My VFD got a great deal (through a different program) on a engine/pumper fire truck (we paid $25K for it, it wasn't free). I'm all for "re-purposing" but I don't see some of this distribution making sense...

Update: Maybe the Winthrop PD is up to good. It appears they are the coordinator for this: http://www.whpd.org/leac/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the link, I did see a big, black, armored vehicle with "POLICE" written on it pass the other direction on my way home from work earlier this week.

-
MINERAL WELLS POLICE DEPT

TRUCK,ARMORED - $65,070.00

Yea! We got ourselves a new armored truck. Yee Haa!

ELB wrote:At this link there is a way to see what excess military equipment various law enforcement agencies have received from the DoD via the now famous (infamous?) 1033 program.

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/ ... -giveaway/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Man, my county (Guadalupe) is way behind. No MRAPS, no helicopters, no NVGs -- in fact, all I can find is the Seguin PD got two 5.56 rifles. I don't see any of our other towns or cities on the list. New Braunfels is really in Comal county, butoverlaps our county a little bit, but all they got were a five .45 pistols and a couple utility trucks. I also note that the list for "Texas" actually includes a lot of federal agencies that are located in Texas, like the INS and the Border Patrol.

Compare with "Since 2006, police in Winthrop Harbor, Ill., a village of 6,700 along the shore of Lake Michigan, has received 10 helicopters, one mine-resistant armored vehicle and two Humvees, and other equipment, worth more than $6.5 million."

I'd like to see where those helicopters are today...

Austin PD picked up quite a bit more. $2M worth. Only one helicopter tho.


ETA: The IRS in El Paso got one night vision sight. ??

I'd like to see where those helicopters are today...

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012 ... hy-swanson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How many constables are in a precinct?

Bexar County Constable Precinct 3

RIFLE, 5.56 MILLIMETER 10 $1,200.00

RIFLE, 7.62 MILLIMETER 2 $276.00

Locally: 2 x .45 ACPS. No objection.

Williamson county got enough night vision stuff that I'm pretty sure it's better to do crime in broad daylight, however.... When you're getting more items than you have officers, something is wrong.



The heli option.. though.. wow... Again, I only see that as a smart decision if you can scrap 'em.