School police buy military gear

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

School police departments across the country have taken advantage of free military-surplus gear, stocking up on mine-resistant armored vehicles, grenade launchers and scores of M16 rifles.

At least 26 school districts have participated in the Pentagon’s surplus program, which is not new but has come under scrutiny after police responded to protesters in Ferguson, Mo., last month with tear gas, armored military trucks and riot gear.

Now, amid that increased criticism, several school districts say they’ll give some of the equipment back. Nearly two dozen education and civil-liberties groups sent a letter earlier this week to the Pentagon and the Justice and Education departments urging a stop to transfers of military weapons to school police.

The Los Angeles Unified School District — the nation’s second-largest school district, covering 710 square miles and enrolling more than 900,000 students — said it would remove three grenade launchers it had acquired because they “are not essential life-saving items within the scope, duties and mission” of the district’s police force.

But the district plans to keep the 60 M16s and a military vehicle — known as an MRAP — used in Iraq and Afghanistan that was built to withstand mine blasts.

District police Chief Steve Zipperman told The Associated Press that the M16s are used for training, and the MRAP, which is parked off campus, was acquired because the district could not afford to buy armored vehicles that might be used to protect officers and help students in a school shooting.

“That vehicle is used in very extraordinary circumstances involving a life-saving situation for an armed threat,” Zipperman said. “Quite frankly, I hope we never have to deploy it.”

Law-enforcement agencies around the country equipped themselves during learner budget years by turning to the Pentagon program, which the Defense Department has used to get rid of gear it no longer needs.

Since the Columbine school shooting in 1999, school districts increasingly participated.

Federal records show schools in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Texas and Utah obtained surplus military gear. At least six California districts have received equipment, state records show.