Some NC police departments consider military gear

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Police agencies in western North Carolina are taking different approaches on the use of military equipment.

The Woodfin Police Department has a military grenade launcher, even though it doesn’t have any grenades, the Asheville Citizen-Times (https://avlne.ws/1tvFGqK ) reported.

Police Chief Brett Holloman says he doesn’t need the launcher in the town of 6,000 people.

The U.S. Defense Department has been giving military equipment and weapons to civilian police agencies. President Obama has said there should be a review of that program after the police response using some of the equipment in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting of an 18-year-old man by a city police officer.

Agencies in western North Carolina have received everything from automatic M-16 rifles to helicopters and a mine-resistant truck.

Asheville police do not have any military weapons for its Emergency Response Teams.

The Buncombe County sheriff’s department has about two dozen M16s rifles, as well as some M14s, mostly used for funeral details.

Police departments are more likely to use tactical teams as they spend more money on them and get more hardware from the military, said Mike Meno, of the American Civil Liberties Union in North Carolina.

“The concern is that police and the military serve very different functions,” Meno said. “Law enforcement officers are supposed to protect and serve their communities and not treat the people in them like enemies on a foreign battlefield.”

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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, https://www.citizen-times.com