Military Surplus Nj - In the city of Garfield, Lt. Police Michael Marsh just took delivery of the department's newest asset - a freshly painted MRAP. It stands for Mine Resistant Armored Protected Vehicle, the type of heavily armored truck used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This is no longer a military vehicle. It's a police department fleet vehicle and you can tell from the name it's an emergency rescue vehicle and that's how we're handling it," Marsh said.
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Police departments across the state, particularly in suburban and coastal areas, have purchased more than $40 million in surplus military equipment — including 13 MRAPs — through a federal program called 1033.
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Records obtained by NJ Advance Media show that local departments have purchased 2,400 pieces of leftover military equipment, including 196 Humvees, more than 600 night vision goggles and 100 pairs of night vision goggles. By NJTV's count, 106 municipal police departments and nearly a dozen county and state agencies have purchased surplus equipment.
In addition to shipping and maintenance costs, which cost about $23,000 for this vehicle, the Garfield Police Department, like others across the state, received the surplus military equipment free of charge.
"This machine is used to complete the unit of the department. It can be used in floodwaters, it can be used if there's been some kind of attack, terrorist attack or a barricade facility," Marsh said.
Law enforcement agencies say it gives them access to tactical equipment they could never afford. This truck would cost about half a million dollars brand new.
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"The entire western border of the city is the Passaic River, so we are affected by the flood waters. During Hurricane Irene, we were affected in a four-block radius for nearly two weeks. The fire department, the police worked to get people out of the river in boats," said Marsh.
Garfield PD was one of several departments that responded to the Garden State Plaza active shooter three years ago and incidents across the East Coast last year. They plan to equip the 10-meter-long, 14-ton truck with lights, sirens and police scanners.
But the program is not without controversy. It came to power after the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo. after the death of Michael Brown. The police responded in the streets with riot gear. Senator Nia Gill introduced legislation in New Jersey to bring more transparency to the program. He asked the Attorney General to review it to make sure it was properly followed.
"The municipality, the governing body, must approve the purchase of any militarized vehicle and this must be done by resolution so that the community has the opportunity to express its position and opinion on how the money will be spent and perhaps more importantly. if they want to have a more militarized police department," he said.
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But police departments dispute that notion, saying the need for their use has grown in recent years, especially after similar military vehicles were used in response to the San Bernardino shooting and the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
"We're not looking to go out and use this for anything other than specialized surgery that would require it," Marsh said.
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The opinions expressed by our advertisers and sponsors are their own and are not endorsed by NJ Spotlight News. Police departments across New Jersey have received thousands of troopers -- including 13 heavily armored vehicles -- over the past two years. of almost 40 million dollars.
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Despite concerns for local department armies, in the second half of last year alone, 13 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, or MRAPs, were sent to a dozen municipal police departments and one sheriff's office, data from the Advance revealed. Media.
The equipment was distributed as part of a federal program that began in the mid-1990s that allows local agencies to order surplus items for free, paying only shipping and maintenance costs.
Local agencies reported that they planned to use the MRAPs in water rescues, terrorist attacks or any situation where SWAT would respond, which could include transporting police to and from protests.
But car buying has not been without controversy in New Jersey. Three years ago, the Bergen County Sheriff's Office withdrew its request for the 13-ton truck, saying it was "no longer worth the trouble."
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See what your local police received from the military surplus program. Take a look at our search database.
Eleven of the MRAPs delivered last year were to be shipped from California or Texas. Shipping costs ranged from $3,500 to $7,500. Many also needed some minor repairs -- windshield replacements, tune-ups and paint -- but none of the vehicles cost municipalities more than $26,000 in total.
"If there's any type of active shooter -- lone wolf type incident -- it's the vehicle that can be used, especially something like a Pulse (Orlando attack)," Perth Amboy Police Department SWAT Chief Lt. Joseph Sulikowski said at a council meeting.
Florida police responded to the nightclub shooting in June with a similar but smaller armored vehicle, the Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counterattack Truck, or Bearcat, which costs between $200,000 and $500,000 .
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That's been the thinking of local police departments since lawmakers set federal and state standards two years ago, regulating how these pieces of equipment are obtained through the DoD's Office of Law Enforcement Support.
Many of the 2,400 line items detailed in the data obtained by Advance Media are for construction and maintenance, such as tools, medical kits, wheelbarrows, dump trucks, cleaning heads and sandbags.
Nationwide, the military issued 608 gun sights -- including night vision, holographic, thermal and red dot -- nearly 100 pairs of night vision goggles and dozens of pieces of insurgency equipment in 2015 and 2016.
Local agencies also received 196 Humvee trucks and military supplies during the same two-year period. Garden State agencies did not receive any weapons or helicopters during that time.
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Milltown, a 1.6-square-mile neighborhood tucked between Route 1 and the Turnpike, received a Humvee and 2.5-ton troop carrier. The two cars have enough seats to transport the entire police force in 16.
The federal 1033 program on surplus equipment moved to the forefront of political discourse in 2014 after protests over the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo. Images from the protests showed a police response that looked more like an army ready for battle than local police.
"What I don't want to see is what we saw in Missouri, where a military vehicle and at the top of the vehicle we have an M-50 driving the protesters," Perth Amboy councilman Fernando Irizarry said at the January meeting. "Would this car ever be used in such a situation?"
"Is it going to be used during the protests as a means of transportation? I'm not going to lie, it could be," Sulikowski said. "We don't have the resources here to put a gun on top."
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The city said it will use the MRAP as a rescue tool and as a portable barrier or shield to provide protection from gunfire.
Perth Amboy police received more than $2 million in military vehicles over the past two years, along with another half million in other surplus equipment, including project lights, sandbags, an iPad and everyday supplies.
The city also received a continuous security surveillance system worth nearly a quarter of a million dollars, the most valuable item after the MRAP.
The description of its national stock number says the system provides a "high-resolution day and night surveillance capability for enhanced target recognition and situational awareness."
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"Camera systems have been deployed at various high-traffic city events and festivals to improve public safety," city officials said in a statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union continues to raise concerns about former military equipment that has landed in local police departments.
Dianna Houenou, policy counsel at the ACLU of New Jersey, said, "The overall problem with police militarization is that it really suggests that the only way for these municipalities to manage their day-to-day policing is to get these pieces of equipment. "It's worrying. It can destroy trust in the government."
In 2015, Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation that added levels of transparency to the program, which previously was often unregulated. New Jersey law enforcement agencies have received 894 assault rifles, two helicopters and a grenade launcher since the 1990s.
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State law required agencies to submit paperwork to the State Police and Office of Emergency Management to enroll in the federal program and obtain permission to purchase surplus items. Both must be approved by a majority of the local governing body in a resolution.
"This law is intended to give the public a voice in the process, allowing residents to consider whether local departments should have equipment such as assault rifles or assault weapons," said state Sen. Nia Gill (D-Essex), a sponsor. IN
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