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> By Melissa McRobbie Grants Pass Daily Courier September 01. 2014 12:01AM Grants Pass police will get mine-resistant vehicle A military vehicle that might seem at home rolling down a dusty street in Afghanistan may soon be spotted in Grants Pass. The Grants Pass Department of Public Safety has acquired a mine-resistant, ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle through the U.S. Department of Defense's 1033 Program, in which federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are given surplus military equipment at no charge to use for activities including drug enforcement and counter-terrorism efforts. The program has come under scrutiny since the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9. The protests that followed drew a police response that included armored vehicles, tear gas and riot gear. In news photos and videos, Ferguson looked like a war zone. The situation there has sparked a nationwide debate on the "militarization" of police and the question of how much is too much when it comes to arming and equipping law enforcement officers. The Department of Defense has given out more than $5 billion in military equipment to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the country since an earlier version of the 1033 Program began in 1991. The equipment includes armored vehicles, high-powered rifles and other gear. Additionally, since 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security has disbursed billions of dollars in grant money to local police departments. Local police applying for military equipment through the 1033 Program must go through their state coordinator and need to pick up the equipment themselves, Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said. "If you're a Texas police department and you want five Humvees, we've got Humvees for you, but you're going to have to get them out of Idaho," Wright said. "You want them, you come get them." To get their MRAP, two Grants Pass police officers were flown to a base in Texas to pick it up and drive it back to Oregon, Interim Police Chief Bill Landis said. He said that after looking at the options, that was the cheapest way to get the vehicle here. He estimated that the trip cost around $2,000. According to the Oregon coordinator's office for the 1033 Program, Grants Pass police have also received eight M16 rifles from the military, while the Josephine County Sheriff's Office has been given three Humvees and 39 "image intensifiers," which are similar to night-vision goggles. Oregon State Police have received five M16 rifles, 20 M14s, two armored cars, two infrared viewers, three night-vision sights and nine night-vision goggles. Wright said MRAP vehicles weigh 10 to 20 tons and were produced at a cost of $400,000 to $700,000, depending on the model. The vehicles were manufactured by five different companies, but production stopped in 2011. The military is retaining the most recent models, and the ones being given to police agencies are the older versions. Thousands of MRAP vehicles remain in Afghanistan. It’s not hard to see the logic behind police agencies jumping at the chance to get free equipment, but some — including the American Civil Liberties Union — are concerned about the tone it sets for police to be approaching citizens with equipment designed for war. Grants Pass police already have two armored vehicles they acquired from other police agencies, including one donated by the city of Medford, Landis said. They will now send one of those vehicles to auction. Landis said police plan to use their MRAP appropriately and sparingly, for situations like an armed standoff where SWAT officers may be at risk of being shot. The MRAP is even more heavy-duty than the department’s current vehicles, he said. “It’s much more protective of the officers than what we currently have,” he said. The sand-colored MRAP received by Grants Pass will be painted black or dark gray by volunteers, and the department has been receiving donations to pay for the paint and other supplies, police Lt. Jim Hamilton said. The goal is to have it ready to use by the fall. Grants Pass’ armored vehicles are used only by the SWAT team, and each use has to be approved beforehand by Landis or a member of his command staff. “It does represent, in many people’s eyes, a show of force, so we want to make sure we’re bringing it out for the right reasons and not just to intimidate the public or make them alarmed,” Landis said. Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson said the Humvees his agency received are used for search-and-rescue purposes. He has not applied for anything like an MRAP vehicle because his agency doesn’t have a SWAT team. “If I could have put in for one of those armored vehicles, I would have,” he said. The sheriff said the situation in Ferguson has created an undue “hysteria” nationwide. “There’s an overperception of the public that we’re being militarized, and that’s not the case,” Gilbertson said. “We’ve had SWAT teams for as far back as I can recall based on the fact that a police officer has the same right to go home to his wife and family when he gets off work as anybody else does.” The ACLU released a report in June, before the Ferguson shooting, that took aim at the number of military-grade weapons and other equipment going to local police departments. David Fidanque, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, said his organization is “very concerned” about the issue. “The issue being the expenditure of federal funds, and in some cases local funds, for hardware that police are almost never going to actually need, and that can, in certain circumstances, be counterproductive in terms of protecting the safety of the public and the safety of officers, as we have seen in Missouri the past few weeks,” Fidanque said. He acknowledged that officers encounter dangerous situations on a daily basis, but said heavy-duty gear doesn’t necessarily translate to greater safety. “The more that law enforcement officials are separated from the community by either high-tech or military-style gear, the easier it is for people on both sides of that line to depersonalize people on the other side,” he said. OSP Lt. Gregg Hastings, meanwhile, said his agency has returned most of the equipment it has received, including two armored cars, because it did not function properly. Reach reporter Melissa McRobbie at 541-474-3806 or  [email protected] . By the numbers Law enforcement agencies nationwide have been receiving military equipment through the Department of Defense's 1033 Program, including Grants Pass police, the Josephine County Sheriff's Office and Oregon State Police.Grants Pass Department of Public Safety• 1 MRAP (mine-resistant ambush protected) vehicle• 8 M16 riflesJosephine County Sheriff's Office• 3 Humvees• 39 image intensifiersOregon State Police (statewide)• 5 M16 rifles• 20 M14 rifles• 2 armored cars• 2 infrared viewers• 3 night-vision sights• 9 night-vision goggles— Source: Law Enforcement Support Office for Oregon, which handles local requests for surplus equipment http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20140901/NEWS/140909994 © 2014 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. 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