SWATs Protect Military Surplus Program

Days after Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, the National Tactical Officers Association mobilized quickly to to protect the program that had provided military surplus equipment to local law enforcement. The NTOA, representing more than 1,500 SWAT teams across the United States, making up some 40,000 law enforcement officials, fired an initial salvo by sending emails to all 535 congressional offices, arguing for the necessity of the program. Its goal, along with other associations representing the law enforcement community, was to kill any hope of ending or substantially weakening the Pentagon’s 1033 equipment transfer program.