Police receive most of their militarized equipment through two federal programs: the LESO/1033 and 1122 programs. The LESO/1033 program allows the Department of Defense (DoD) to transfer excess military equipment to local law enforcement agencies free of charge, as long as the local agencies pay for shipping and maintenance. The 1122 program allows local police entities to purchase new military equipment using their own funding with the same discounts received by the federal government.
LESO/1033 Military Excess Property Program
In the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal years 1990 and 1991, Congress authorized the DoD to transfer excess DoD property to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Congress later passed the NDAA for fiscal year 1997, which allows law enforcement agencies to acquire property for bona fide law enforcement purposes – particularly those associated with counter-drug and counter-terrorism activities. The program has been named in the press and elsewhere as the “1033 Program,” which refers to the section of the 1997 NDAA that granted permanent authority to the Secretary of Defense to transfer defense material to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
Data on this website
The Defense Logistics Agency’s Law Enforcement Support Office is responsible for the management of the LESO/1033 Program and is the source of the data that appear on a city or county’s dashboard in the National Police Funding Database. These data are provided quarterly.
1122 Program
The 1122 Program, owned and managed by the DoD, allows states and units of local government access to federal sources of supply to purchase equipment to support anti-drug, homeland security, and emergency response activities. There is no federal reporting requirement related to 1122 Program purchases, and thus they are not represented in the National Police Funding Database.
Visit the U.S. General Services Administration web page describing the 1122 program
Further reading
From LDF
- LDF Files Complaint Against City of Louisville for Military-Style Response to Peaceful Protests
- LDF Statement on the President’s Reported Plan to End Ban on Transfer of Military Equipment to Local Law Enforcement
- LDF Calls For Ban on Use of Military Weapons and Equipment By Police Officers Serving K-12 Schools