The
1033 Program was created by the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 1997 as part of the
U.S. Government's Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services (DLA) to transfer excess
military equipment to
civilian law enforcement agencies and
signed into law by President Bill Clinton on Sept 23, 1996.[SUP]
[1][/SUP] As of 2014, 8,000 local law enforcement agencies participated in the reutilization program that has transferred $5.1 billion in military hardware from the
Department of Defense to local
American law enforcement agencies since 1997.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] According to the DLA, material worth $449 million was transferred in 2013 alone. The most commonly obtained item from the 1033 program is DEMIL A items, which fall off the inventory after one year of ownership. Some of the other most commonly requested items include cold weather clothing, sand bags, medical supplies, sleeping bags, flashlights and electrical wiring. Small arms and vehicles such as aircraft, watercraft and armored vehicles have also been obtained.
The program has been criticized over the years by local media, by the
Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense in 2003 and the
GAO which found waste, abuse and fraud. It was not until media coverage of militarized police during August
2014 Ferguson unrest that the program drew nationwide public attention. It should be noted that Ferguson Police Department had no 1033 equipment during the unrest as per the Missouri 1033 Program. President Obama signed Executive Order 13688 into law on May 2015 limiting and prohibiting certain types of equipment.[SUP][
citation needed][/SUP]. The
ACLU has raised concerns about the
militarization of police forces in the US.
During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.
The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs.