OpenTheBooks, a watchdog group that monitors government spending activities, has found that the Defense Department has transferred approximately $2.2 billion in surplus military equipment to local police departments across the U.S. since 2006.
Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks, wrote in an opinion piece for Forbes published Tuesday the organization also found that law enforcement agencies in Arizona, California, Florida, Texas and Tennessee received a majority of the 1.5 million weapons-related items from DoD.
Shipped items include helicopters, airplanes, armored trucks, cars, M16 and M14 rifles, bayonets, pistols, shotguns, night vision gears, binoculars, mine detectors and other weaponry types, he noted.
Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department acquired 500 M16 rifles and Andrzejewski expects the DC Metro Transit police to get 134.5 pounds of C4, TNT, potassium chlorate, plastic explosive and other explosives over the next nine years.
