Send Guns and Trucks! An Examination of Law Enforcement Requests from the 1033 Program

Presentation given at the American Society of Criminology Conference.

Recent police response to public protests and other events across the country have renewed public and scholarly interest in acquisition and use of military equipment by police in the U.S. However, there is limited research to date on why police acquire this equipment and how they intend to use such materiel once they receive it. We take advantage of a large and detailed dataset including all property requests (and cancellations) from the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program to conduct an agency-level analysis of police militarization to compare and contrast rational public choice explanations of police militarization to conflict theory and racial threat theories of police militarization. In doing so, we answer three important questions: (1) to what extent do crime rates and racial/socioeconomic composition influence the likelihood that police departments will request material (and more valuable material) from the 1033 Program?; (2) are police departments relying on rational choice (e.g. drug interdiction efforts, specific police efforts, etc.) in their requests for tactical and non-tactical equipment?; (3) do crime rates and racial/socioeconomic composition influence the nature of police requests (e.g. using public safety justifications for non-tactical equipment)?