Friend –

It's a scene that has become too familiar across our country. Whether amid protests or on any given day – local police are patrolling communities like soldiers at war, equipped with military-grade rifles, grenade launchers, combat vehicles, and more.

This is America's militarized police force. And no federal program is more emblematic of it than the Department of Justice's 1033 program – which gives police and sheriff's departments unique and unprecedented access to military gear and tactics.

ACLU's researchers recently spent months analyzing the 1033 program and its harm on communities, compiled in our newly-released analysis, which you can read in full today.

While this latest article is extensive, here are just a few key findings you need to know:

• 1033 evolved from the War on Drugs and grew from there: Since the 1990s, 1033 has provided more than $7.4 billion worth of surplus military equipment to state and local agencies. This is a legacy of America's "forever wars" on drugs, crime, and terror. Congress first enabled the practice of transferring military weapons to local police in order to facilitate "counter-drug activities," then expanded astronomically under the guise of "counter-terrorism" after 9/11 – motivated by racism and Islamophobia, respectively.
• The program disproportionately harms communities of color: Militarized police continue to target Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. These weapons of war have notably been used recently against protesters demanding racial justice – including at Standing Rock, Ferguson, Kenosha, and Minneapolis. And police continue to overuse SWAT raids similar to the one which killed Breonna Taylor.
• Reforms to the program haven't accomplished much: After the highly-militarized police response to protests against the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014, President Obama signed an executive order to establish oversight of 1033. Our research shows at the end of its reform period, state and local law enforcement agencies still possessed 78,100 assault rifles and 1,400 militarized vehicles – all transferred through 1033.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg, ACLU Supporter. Be sure to read more in our new article today, which includes straightforward recommendations to ending 1033 for good.

And of course, know that demilitarization is only one part of the much larger work that must continue in order to truly achieve public safety for us all – divesting from law enforcement as an institution and reinvesting in the communities they harm most.

This is what the ACLU will continue to push for up ahead – following the lead of Black- and Brown-led grassroots groups – and we're grateful to have you with us as we do.

Thank you,

Charlotte Lawrence
Pronouns: She, her, hers
Special Assistant for Digital, Tech, and Analytics, ACLU

Cyrus O'Brien
Pronouns: He, him, his
Research Fellow, ACLU
Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow