Clashes between protesters and police in Ferguson, Mo., spurred by the fatal shooting of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 have left some wondering if local police departments are becoming too militarized.
Protests in Missouri have gone from peaceful by day to some riots at night with Molotov cocktails thrown and stores looted. Armed officers have responded with tear gas, flash grenades, rubber bullets and armored vehicles as they’ve tried to drive the crowds back.
Although the clashes have slowed since the Missouri National Guard arrived, some feel the police response has been excessive and may have further fueled the tensions in the racially charged situation.
President Barack Obama has called for a re-examination of programs that have helped law enforcement departments obtain military gear.
“There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement, and we don’t want those lines blurred,” Obama said to reporters at the White House this week.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, has also said she will lead a Senate hearing next month regarding the militarization of local police.
But Capt. Sam Hulse with Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t think the whole system needs to be re-examined.
“It’s disheartening to me — with society still under pressure from terrorism — that legislative branches would be this quick and this willing to take away the tools that law enforcement needs to do its job,” he said.
Hulse said it’s important not to make broad changes based on one incident, especially since there are decades worth of instances that show why officers need these tools.
He points to the North Hollywood shootout in 1997, when Los Angeles police went up against two bank robbers who had body armor, automatic weapons and armor-piercing bullets. Outgunned, officers had to track down additional weapons to fight back. The bank robbers eventually died, but nearly a dozen officers and several civilians were also injured in the process.
“If you’re coming up against people with rifles, you have to have the ability to have the same firepower to deal with that,” Hulse said, adding that the Second Amendment gives people the right to bear arms. “We support and defend that, but it means the populace is armed.”
Inkom Police Chief Cal Edwards agrees. He’s been in law enforcement for more than 30 years. Although he carried a six-shot revolver for the first two decades, he said officers typically carry semiautomatic handguns and have access to rifles now.
“The bad guys keep up with this stuff. If we don’t, we get killed,” he said. “These are things we use to save lives.”
Several area law enforcement agencies also have armored vehicles now. Hulse said Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office has a Lenco BearCat up armored with rifle-rated steel, which it’s using Homeland Security grant funds to pay for.
They can deploy chemical agents from a position of relative cover and shoot from the vehicle, Hulse said, but only with guns they normally have. The armored vehicle also allows them to drive a bomb squad robot closer to an explosive, he said.
The vehicle essentially just gives them a shield when responding to dangerous situations in which officers and civilians can get hurt.
“All of this equipment buys us time and buys us the ability to save life,” he said, adding that it’s the local law enforcement officers who first respond when someone starts shooting in a school or a theater or sets off a bomb during a marathon.
“Police are the first line of defense in the community,” he said.
Hulse believes they need certain types of equipment to do their job.
“The goal is to save life,” he said, adding that people should want to have equipment that helps officers do that in their communities.
Edwards agrees. His department doesn’t have an armored vehicle of its own, but he’s grateful the Pocatello Police Department, where his son works, does.
“If it saves one officer’s life, it’s worth it,” he said. “I’m for giving police officers the proper equipment to do the job.”
Bingham County Sheriff’s Office has a Humvee from the U.S. Department of Energy, and its special response team can use the vehicle during search and rescue missions and other emergencies.
Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland doesn’t believe that having military equipment makes law enforcement militarized, but it does help them to do their job.
“I think that it is good that we can have equipment that the military has and is no longer using,” he said. “If you have a vehicle that is bullet proof and you go into a situation where people are shooting at you, that vehicle can help you greatly.”
Hulse also takes exception to the word “militarized.”
Having gas masks, helmets, plate carriers and riot agents, which they’ve had access to since the Vietnam era, doesn’t make them military, he said.
“The military has tanks with cannons and aircraft that drop bombs and missiles. We don’t have those,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think they are militarized just because they have armored capabilities and can rescue people under fire.
Sen. Roy Lacey, D-Pocatello, recognizes that some people may think the equipment that local law enforcement have is excessive, but he trusts the officers.
“If you talk to the layperson, most feel it’s way more than they need; however, policemen and firemen lay their lives on the line everyday they go out and they’re the best judge to determine what they need,” he said. “I try not to second guess that.”
Lacey said situations can turn dangerous quickly, especially with so many guns being sold to the public right now.
“They’re in more danger than they’ve ever been before. If they feel they need it, I think they should have it,” he said.
Although officers agree that equipment can be misused and no one is perfect at their job, they believe incidents of abuse should be dealt with individually and not as a whole. And all of the facts should be in before any decisions are made.
None of those interviewed wanted to comment on the situation in Ferguson because the facts are still being sorted out, but they’re concerned about the ripple effect that could impact law enforcement in the rest of the country who had nothing to do with the circumstances there.
“It’s scary that a politician could take (our abilities) away based on a limited incident,” Hulse said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.