Police across the country are successfully using the Department of Defense’s 1033 military surplus program, which equips law enforcement agencies with excess military vehicles and weapons to better protect their residents.
Law enforcement agencies around North Carolina have received MRAPs, along with other vehicles including “Humvees and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters,” according to the Fayetteville Observer.
Since 1993, the program has contributed nearly 2,000 rifles, more than 600 pistols, more than 100 shotguns and 22 grenade launchers to North Carolina lawmen. It has provided 17 helicopters, 12 armored trucks and 103 utility trucks, which often are Humvees.
But no North Carolina department has received any items since January because the state has been suspended from the program because of accounting problems at the agency that oversees the 1033 Program in the state.
“I’m on a limited budget,” Coats Police Chief Jeremy Hall told the Fayetteville Observer. “[The 1033 Program] helps immensely.”
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