Many law enforcement agencies in suburban Minneapolis and St. Paul that policed protests were the beneficiaries of a Pentagon program that distributed more than $1 billion worth of military gear to local police departments.
Since Cottage Grove received its first military equipment in November from the 1033 program — six night vision viewers, each valued at $10,427.10 — it has acquired 461 other types of surplus gear whose total listed value exceeds $1 million.Sgt. Brad Petersen, who supervises Cottage Grove's participation in the Pentagon program, says the chief reason his police department joined that decades-old initiative was to get a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, armored personnel carrier.
The vehicle, originally designed for forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and meant to withstand improvised explosive device blasts, technically remains controlled property of the Department of Defense, as does all equipment transferred to law enforcement agencies that is of a strictly military nature.
"We rushed it back into service when things started to go sideways here," says Petersen, who is also a commander on Washington County's 36-member SWAT team. "The first time we used it was the week of civil unrest." According to DLA records, a request from its police for four"riot control kits," worth $35,000 each, was made in February for"crowd control operations" but was rejected on the grounds the department had not submitted required paperwork.Petersen says the bayonets his force recently received through the Pentagon program were intended to be used as utility knives rather than mounted on rifle barrels.
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