Gear built for war rests with Greeley lawmen
Matte-black, 10 feet tall and encased in armor so thick knocks don't echo in its hollow interior, the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle sits so heavy that steel plates are needed to keep the asphalt from cracking under its tires.
Designed for war, the machine now bears the dull-gold inscription of "Police Rescue and Greeley Police Department SWAT."
"We don't use it to go knock on doors or anything," Greeley PD spokesman Sgt. J.P. Tymkowych said, walking toward its steel-plated parking space at the police station.
Since the department acquired the vehicle from the Department of Defense through its 1033 military surplus program in November, Tymkowych knows of one time it has been deployed: to serve a warrant at a house with "lots of intelligence that people had some pretty serious weapons inside."
Otherwise, it sits, sometimes used in training, sometimes receiving routine maintenance. But mostly, it sits in the parking lot of a police department tasked with protecting a city just shy of 100,000 residents with a crime rate below the national average.
FCPD: No need for military surplus
Nationally, however, a storm is gathering around gear like the MRAP.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said Thursday she would lead a Senate hearing to examine the militarization of police local police. Recent images from her state, in the city of Ferguson, show police in military fatigues pointing assault rifles at unarmed protestors angry at the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager.
The military paid $412,000 for the MRAP, according to records obtained by the Coloradoan. Greeley paid zero, aside from maintenance — so far less than $100 — and likely wouldn't have the MRAP without the 1033 program, officials said.
In total, the department pulled in about $1.7 million worth of surplus military gear, from boots to cold weather gear, 72 M16A1 rifles and even some duct tape.
Some items, like the cold weather gear, are things the department would need to buy anyway. Some rifles in subprime shape end up being cannibalized to make functioning weapons or supplement rifles purchased by the department.
Greeley Police Chief James Garner said his department's use of the 1033 program reflects a simple philosophy: "Your taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for something twice."
Measured by the items' cost to the military, Greeley PD took in 60 percent of all surplus military gear received by law enforcement agencies in Larimer and Weld Counties.
But having the gear isn't the important part, Garner argued; it is how it's used.
The MRAP, for example, is "basically an armored ambulance," and "perfect" to get a medical team to a downed officer or citizen with a barricaded shooter, Garner said. A stretcher filled half of its rear space Friday morning.
"It's a multipurpose vehicle," Tymkowych said. "It's not weaponized; there's a turret, but there's no machine gun. It's just a vantage point."
Like you wouldn't send an officer to patrol the street with an assault rifle on his back, you wouldn't send the MRAP out for crowd control, Garner said. He emphasized he wasn't criticizing any particular law enforcement agencies. Police in Missouri have been criticized for using armored personnel carriers as roadblocks and sniper vantage points during recent protests.
Mark Silverstein, legal director of the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, recalled when police in full tactical garb rolled down the streets of Denver ahead of the Democratic National Convention in 2008 in a daunting display of might.
"I had a very real fear that just that display was going to chill people from coming downtown to exercise their first amendment rights," he said.
He called it dressing for battle, an act that sends signals police know there will be trouble. It also voids the tactic of de-escalation and crowd calming.
The public has a right to know what gear law enforcement has, how it may be used and what kind of training police receive for it, Silverstein said. Even then, he said, there's danger of police entering into dangerous situations because they're equipped for them.
The Greeley Police Department uses a threat matrix to gauge the danger of a situation and the appropriate response, Tymkowych said.
Garner stressed the need to react appropriately, but to also be prepared for the worst. He brought up the assault rifle-wielding bank robbers in Los Angeles in the 1990s, where officers were severely outgunned, as the genesis for officers carrying assault rifles themselves. He also described scenes from the Columbine High School massacre where police used a fire truck as protection when trying to save injured children, as a next-best solution to lacking an armored vehicle.
"Some of this equipment is stuff we'd like to sit in the closet and to not use at all," Garner said.
He also pushed back against the idea of a "warrior cop" mentality and said it doesn't represent law enforcers he knows.
"The police chiefs I know are very, very opposed to that idea," Garner said. "Our officers are public servants, not warriors. To have warriors, you need to have a war, and we're not at war."
Even for defense purposes, Silverstein questioned the premise of the surplus program — which crimes in Colorado dictate that law enforcement needs grenade launchers, like in Jackson County, and mine-resistant vehicles? When first told about the MRAPs, he glibly asked, "Do they have a lot of problems with mines in Weld?"
Garner, when told of this criticism, laughed and called it a bit disingenuous; any police agency worried about mines has much bigger problems than military surplus, he said.
Silverstein warned that equipment even as potentially blase as night-vision goggles could fuel poor tactics.
"I don't know that there's anything inherently militaristic about night vision goggles," Silverstein said. "But I know that these nighttime raids, where they use these night vision goggles, can often be avoided by waiting until the day and knocking on the door to serve the warrant."
Colorado Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Karl Wilmes also noted the shift in police tactics. He recalled serving a warrant 25 years ago where a man locked himself in a backroom, potentially with guns at his disposal. Now, its likely law enforcement would respond with a SWAT or special operations team; then, they merely walked back, knocked on the door and said "c'mon guy, you've got to come with us."
The CBI doesn't track tactical responses or active shooter scenarios, in part because of how broad the definition for an active shooter scenario is.
In Jackson County, 7 officers, 6 assault rifles and a grenade launcher
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office, west of Fort Collins and between the Roosevelt and Routt national forests, guards a mountain community of not quite 1,400 people. It has four full-time law enforcement officers — the sheriff, the undersheriff and two patrol deputies — and the force is rounded out by a POST-certified court bailiff and two reserve officers.
That's a badge for each military weapon the department received through the 1033 program: two 7.62 mm M14 rifles, four 5.56mm M16A1 assault rifles and a grenade launcher.
According to the Colorado Department of Public Safety's crime statistics, Jackson County also has one of the lowest crime rates in the state, posting 1 crime per 100,000 people since 2005. It has had 75 total arrests since 1992, 35 of which were for violent crimes.
Undersheriff Christina Bradshaw, who handles the military surplus program, said the weapons received by the department have never been deployed, though deputies are trained to use them. She doesn't know of any incidents where they would have been needed either, at least not locally.
"It's always a concern of any police agency to watch active shooter scenarios," she said. "And I think it behooves any police agency to be prepared for those situations."
The county's military grenade launcher was acquired before she took over the program, and Bradshaw was hesitant to speak for the person who requested it. It could be used to augment an active shooter situation or a "worst possible case scenario." The person who requested it is no longer with the department.
Bradshaw stressed that the weapons would only be for specific situations.
"If you have an active shooter situation, then obviously you're going to want to use appropriate equipment for that situation," Bradshaw said. "Are you going to need a rifle for someone issuing bad checks? I would say not."
When first asked about the department's use of the program, Bradshaw quickly pivoted from weapons to search-and-rescue gear: vests, a generator, other cold-weather gear and field packs. While the county pays for some search and rescue operations, they're largely funded by donations — and are a potential lifesaver in the unforgiving high country.
She called a properly equipped search and rescue team "absolutely essential not only for the safety and security for people that live in our county, but those that visit our county."
While she didn't have the price the military paid for the gear on hand, "the value to us, I don't know that I could put a price on it. It's one of those things where if we couldn't get through military surplus, we couldn't afford it."
Military surplus on the Front Range
LARIMER COUNTY
Crime rate: 550 crimes per 100,000 people
Notable gear
Fort Collins Police Services
• Five M14 rifles; all used for ceremonial purpose only
Total cost to military: $690
Larimer County Sheriff's Office
• 20 M14 rifles, all ceremonial
• Four utility trucks, used for search and rescue operations
• Explosive disposal robot, used by SWAT as a "camera on wheels"
• Eight image intensifiers or night-vision equipment, none in use
Total cost to military: $243,000
Loveland Police Department
• 15 M14 rifles
• 15 M16A1 rifles
Total cost to military: $9,500
WELD COUNTY
Crime rate: 521 crimes per 100,000 people
Windsor Police Department
• Six M14 rifles
• Two .38 caliber revolvers
Total cost to military: $1,000
Weld County Sheriff's Office
• MRAP
• 71 cold-weather undershirts
• 15 M14 rifles
• 177 reflex sights
Total cost to military: $836,000
Greeley Police Department
• 72 M16 rifles
• 10 M14 rifles, used for ceremonial purposes
• MRAP
• 22 suppressors for small-arms weapons
• 104 weapon sights
• Explosives removal robot
• 166 pieces of cold weather clothing
Total cost to military: $1.7 million
Note: Notable equipment may not include all equipment received; status or use of equipment from department sources. Source: 1033 program records; crime stats from Colorado Department of Public Safety.