Richland County, SC and the insanity of the 1033 program

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
President Trump signed an executive order expanding a controversial U.S. Defense Department program that transfers military equipment—including armored vehicles, aircraft and firearms—to civilian law enforcement agencies.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the expansion of the "1033 program" at a National Fraternal Order of Police event in Nashville on Aug. 28.

"The executive order the president will sign today will ensure that you can get the lifesaving gear that you need to do your job and send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence and lawlessness to become the new normal," Sessions said.

In the final year before Obama's 2015 reforms, 1033 distributed nearly a billion dollars worth of equipment among the more than 8,000 law-enforcement and other agencies that have enrolled in the program.

In a July 2017 report, the Government Accountability Office, the feds' main watchdog agency, warned that the Defense Department "lacks reasonable assurance that it has the ability to prevent, detect and respond to potential fraud and minimize associated security risks" associated with 1033.

GAO researchers posed as representatives of a fake federal law enforcement agency and acquired, via 1033, more than a million dollars worth of ex-military weapons including rifles, bomb components and night vision goggles. "It was like getting stuff off of eBay," one researcher said.

Leon Lott, the long-serving sheriff in Richland County, knows this all too well. In 2005, Lott acquired a former U.S. Army M-113 armored personnel carrier, ostensibly for his department's SWAT team. The M-113 has tracks like a tank does and armor capable of deflecting smaller calibers of gunfire.

But in fact, the Richland County Sheriff's department never actually deployed the vehicle for its intended purpose.

In 2013, the Richland County Sheriff's Department received two, twin-prop C-23 transport planes that the Army had recently retired.

Richland County, one of the most developed and urban counties in South Carolina, already operated ex-military helicopters and had no obvious need for transport planes. A few months after receiving the C-23s, Lott's department arranged to trade them to Win Win Aviation in Illinois. In exchange for the C-23s, Win Win offered to give Lott a new Cessna plane sporting high-tech surveillance gear worth half a million dollars.

But shortly before the suspension, Lott managed to get at least one last major piece of equipment via the 1033 program—a 20-ton Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected armored vehicle.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/one-so...-the-insanity-of-giving-military-gear-to-cops
 

glhs837

Power with Control
Yep, rife with abuse. Not to mention the millions spent on rehabbing and maintaining this sort of gear.

"For the better part of a dozen years, a group of employees and managers at the Navy’s largest public shipyard operated what amounted to an unsanctioned, off-the-books police force, equipping it with illegally or improperly obtained weapons, vehicles and fuel, wasting an estimated $21 million in public funds in the process.

Those are the findings of an internal command-directed investigation performed by the Naval Sea Systems Command’s inspector general, which undertook an in-depth review of the case after military criminal investigators and federal prosecutors declined to do so."

I would synopsize, but really, you have to read the story, it's nuts. These guys took a vehicle with homemade tags to FLETC to attend a 50K training course they didn't need. They got turned around at the gate. Went around the corner and replaced that with another plate from the many they had received on surplus vehicles.
 

black dog

Free America
The town down the road got 15 M14 rifles about 15 years ago, the only time they are used is for fun at the range.
The town I live in ordered 4 M16A1's 4 years ago. They too are just used for rangetime fun.

The jokes out here are, if a town ordered a MRAP or a Humvee most likely they would never be able to afford the oil changes much less if it needed a new tire. And that's it they could find someone who knew how to actually do the needed work.
It would just end up being a 22 ton parking lot wind screen that slowly sank into the asphalt.
 

officeguy

Well-Known Member
I don't think you can trade assets received from surplus within such a short timeframe. That C23 deal sounds like it may be a violation of the grant program.
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
210 calls for an MRAP on a good day.


Friend of mine, that has to commute from 7D to well north on 210 daily, posted pictures, yesterday and today, of the miles long parking lot it becomes every morning. I can't imagine dealing with that.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Friend of mine, that has to commute from 7D to well north on 210 daily, posted pictures, yesterday and today .....


luckily I am going against that wave at 5 am ....
although Ghettodorf to Hollywood is enough of a pain with the left lane bandits doing 55 / 60
 

LightRoasted

If I may ...
If I may ...

Exactly what is the difference between us, the regular people, and the yahoos that revive this military hardware in which we the people are not allowed to have?
 

glhs837

Power with Control
Wife starts commuting from St Marys City to right near the Waldorf MVA on Monday. Her choice, I hope she doesn't mind it.
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
You expecting the 7D to invade? Is Bushwood going to start taking prisoners?

If they do try..we're expecting shore bombardment to preceded an amphibious assault. It's what we'd do if we were attacking there. ;-) Trying to get an LCAC through 1033 right now, in fact.


See, the problem is that there has been no neutral middle ground where weekly grievances could be addressed and settled...not since Pennie's closed.:boxing:
 
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