DECATUR, Ind. (AP) - When Adams County Sheriff Shane Reckeweg took office in 2011, the deputies patrolling the 340 square miles of land that make up his agency’s jurisdiction were armed with a sidearm in their holster and a shotgun in their squad cars.
That quickly changed, though, thanks to a federal program that has been supplying police departments across the country with military-grade surplus weapons since the mid-1990s.
Now, Reckeweg’s deputies all have an assault rifle locked away in their squad cars. No deputy has used one outside of training yet, but they are there if they’re needed.
And these guns are not only needed in today’s environment, according to Reckeweg, they’ve come on the cheap, too, saving taxpayers at least tens of thousands of dollars.
“Really, this is no different than, if you remember back in the ’70s, criminals were carrying around semi-automatics and police officers were carrying around revolvers,” Reckeweg told The Journal Gazette (https://bit.ly/1lTZqSk ) of the need of the weaponry.
“Police officers were outgunned when they got to situations.”
The killing of a black teenager at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last month not only sparked debate about police brutality and racism, it also called into question what others have deemed the militarization of police.
Images of officers donning camouflage, armed with rifles and riding around in armored vehicles flooded the Internet and 24/7 news channels, and President Barack Obama has called for a review of the Pentagon’s 1033 Program.
This program, which has been used by many Indiana law enforcement agencies, has supplied police forces all over the country with military surplus weapons for nearly 20 years - first to fight the war on terror, then to fight terrorism.
Jonathan Ray, president and CEO of the Fort Wayne Urban League, said he can see how in today’s society, “they need those weapons.” But, he said, “when and where you use it, there needs to be a provision of training at the same time.
“So far, I think the police in our community has been judicious in their use, but looking back at those pictures (from Ferguson) of officers with their faces scowled and fingers on the trigger, rifles trained on people with their hands up or pointed at kids, that should never happen in America,” Ray added.
While many have turned a critical eye to arming officers like soldiers, many police officials, nationally and locally, have echoed Reckeweg: The weapons are needed to keep police officers and citizens safe, and they save money.
“If I didn’t get the rifles from a surplus or government program, I would’ve had to turn around and buy them,” said Reckeweg, who procured about two dozen assault rifles using the program for under $200 a pop.
He estimated that those rifles might cost roughly $1,000 apiece retail.
Other agencies large and small in the area - from Berne and Woodburn to Fort Wayne and Huntington and even the IPFW force - have used the program to beef up arsenals.
Assault rifles, handguns, armored vehicles and grenade launchers have been available through the program.
“I understand the conversation that’s going on, but officers need to be able to defend themselves,” said Rusty York, Fort Wayne director of public safety and the city’s former police chief. “Officers on a regular basis are encountering more semi-automatic handguns and assault-type rifles, and they have to be prepared to respond.”
Fort Wayne police used the Pentagon program to get more than two dozen assault rifles in 2006. Those rifles go mostly unused, though, York said.
Initially bought for the Emergency Services Team - the department’s version of a SWAT unit - the rifles are from the Vietnam era and are no longer equipped to fill the department’s needs, he said.
The department still uses an armored vehicle it received through the program in 1998.
Brought out so officers can get close to homes or buildings when dealing with a barricaded subject or hostage situation, that armored vehicle is also becoming obsolete, York said.
Soon, the department will replace it with a new armored vehicle that will be commercially produced. It will not come from the federal government.
“We don’t really utilize that program anymore,” York said.
While the weapons may be military grade, the ammunition usually is not.
York said the assault rifles his department used out of the program and use today do not fire military-grade rounds, which would blast through several homes in an urban environment.
Auburn Police Chief Martin McCoy used the program to get his department three armored Hummers.
One is used for parts for the other trucks; one has been painted with the force’s logo and makes appearances in parades, while the other is used in SWAT situations.
“We got them in pretty rough shape,” McCoy said.
His department also received a grenade launcher, which is to be used only to launch tear gas canisters. That grenade launcher is a backup to one the department received through other means.
Outside of training, that launcher has not been put into practice.
Reckeweg said that while some of the rifles his Adams County department received were automatic upon arrival, a few minor alterations made them semi-automatic.
An automatic weapon will fire more rapidly than a semi-automatic.
These rifles are locked in a locker inside his deputies’ squad cars during their shifts and are stored in a secured area at his agency’s headquarters when they’re not being used.
All weapons have to be accounted for at least once a year. Police officials do an inventory that includes picture proof that they have the weapons they were given and that the weapons are secured.
If a gun is misplaced, the federal government can penalize an entire state’s law enforcement agencies. This happened in Utah recently when one agency could not find a gun; federal officials shut down the program for every force in the state for several months.
The government will also take back the guns and weapons it has given out through the program. “I’m very careful about knowing where everything is,” Reckeweg said. “If we lose any of those pieces of equipment, we’ll lose everything.”
What has not been widely circulated is that the program has also given agencies office supplies, computers, backpacks and survival gear, almost always free, to police agencies across the country.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Department in the past few years received free computers - that otherwise were going to be thrown away - for its squad cars, plus a huge number of manila folders that the Census Bureau did not use during the last population count.
“This whole program is saving local agencies millions of dollars clear across the nation,” Reckeweg said.
Reckeweg is cognizant of the ongoing scrutiny police departments are coming under in light of events in Ferguson.
But he does not believe the picture being painted of police officers becoming soldiers is valid.
Aside from the equipment being similar, he said, officers are not the military. Officers are there to protect and serve, not defend the country.
“Law enforcement carries a gun and so does the military, but their roles are at two ends of the spectrum - national defense and policing,” Reckeweg said.
“I just don’t see where they’re coming up with the militarization of law enforcement just because of the equipment,” he added. “The roles have stayed the same.”
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Information from: The Journal Gazette, https://www.journalgazette.net
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