Voters Don’t Want Police Departments to Have Military Equipment

By Kelsey Wright

Recently, a reporter from a local news station tweeted about how the Moundsville Police Department acquired a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) military tactical vehicle. Quickly, people noted that the population of Moundsville, West Virginia is under 10,000 people and its crime rate is far lower than the national average, with only two murders in the past ten years, leading people to ask why they need a million-dollar military vehicle.

The Moundsville Police Department received the MRAP via the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which has transferred billions of dollars of surplus military equipment from the Department of Defense to local law enforcement agencies since 1997. 

As part of a June survey, Data for Progress polled voters about their beliefs about police, police violence, the recent protests, and proposed reforms. One item we tested was a proposal to make it illegal for federal government agencies to transfer military weapons intended for modern warfare, like MRAPs, to civilian police departments. 

Overall, voters support the proposal by a margin of 18-percentage-points (53 percent support, 35 percent oppose). Voters who self-identify as Democrats support it by a 33-point margin (62 percent support, 29 percent oppose) while self-identifying Republicans do so by a 5-point margin (47 percent support, 42 percent oppose).  

 
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While the 1033 program allows local departments to obtain military surplus items for free--they only have to pay for shipping and maintenance--the federal government also sells military equipment to police departments. We also tested support for ending this practice.

We found similar levels of support for stopping the sale of military equipment to police departments, with the proposal enjoying a 16-point margin of support among all voters (51 percent support, 35 percent oppose). Democrats strongly back the proposal by 38-points (63 percent support, 25 percent oppose), however Republicans oppose the proposal by 4-points (42 percent support, 46 percent oppose). Republicans likely oppose this proposal because it focuses on military equipment instead of military weapons specifically.

 
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Lawmakers are beginning to listen to public opinion on this issue. In the Senate, Brian Schatz of Hawaii has partnered with Rand Paul of Kentucky to include an amendment in the annual defense policy bill to shut down the 1033 program. Representative Nydia Velázquez, a Democrat from New York introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives.

Stopping the sale and transfer of military equipment to local police departments proves to be popular and a commonsense step to demilitarize police, and lawmakers should join onto current efforts towards this goal.


Authorship & Methodology

Kelsey Wright is an intern at Data for Progress. 

From June 13 through June 14, 2020 Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,157 likely voters nationally using web-panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ± 2.9 percentage points. 

Question wording

Would you support or oppose making it illegal for government agencies to transfer military weapons intended for modern warfare, like mine resistant armored vehicles, to civilian police departments?

1-Strongly support

2-Somewhat support

3-Somewhat oppose

4-Strongly oppose

5-Don’t know

Below is a list of policy ideas to reform police departments. Do you support or oppose each of the following policy reform ideas? -- Stop the sale of military equipment by the federal government to police departments, including armored and weaponized drones, armored combat vehicles and grenades.

1-Strongly support

2-Somewhat support

3-Somewhat oppose

4-Strongly oppose

5-Don’t know

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