WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) -- The Fraternal Order of Police, the world's largest organization of law enforcement officers, is objecting to parts of Sen. Claire McCaskill's bill coordinating federal programs on the use of surplus military equipment and other aid to local police departments.
McCaskill, D-Mo., introduced her bill last week as an answer to police "militarization" claims made in the response to unrest in Ferguson last summer after the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
Whose law would the 'federal police' enforce? State law? Local ordinances? Or would we then have to have federal laws for every burg, village, county and township in the country? Hmmm, wonder what the Democrats would say...
...no, I don't wonder at all. |
The bill also would bar small police departments, those with fewer than 10 sworn officers, from purchasing more than one military tactical vehicle.
| There isn't a police department in the country that needs even one. Let the state police own a few. Otherwise military vehicles belong to the military. |
Departments with fewer than 35 officers would not able to obtain federal funding for SWAT equipment unless they teamed up with other agencies to form regional SWAT teams. Hotlines would be set up to receive reports from the public on the misuse of funds and equipment, and police departments would have to publish their requests for grant funding for certain equipment, such as tactical vehicles, camouflage, flash bang grenades and weapons over a certain caliber. |