Military Surplus

This project looks at how much U.S. military surplus equipment has been transferred to law enforcement agencies. It uses data from from the “1033 program” handled through the Law Enforcement Support Office, which posts data quarterly.

Questions we will answer:

All answers should be based on controlled items given to Texas agencies from Jan. 1, 2010 to present.

• How many total “controlled” items were transferred to Texas agencies, and what are they all worth? We’ll summarize all the controlled items only to get the total quantity and total value of everything.
• How many total “controlled” items did each agency get and how much was it all worth? Which agency got the most stuff?
• How about local police agencies? I’ll give you a list.
• What specific “controlled” items did each agency get and how much were they worth? Now we’re looking at the kinds of items.
• What did local agencies get?

Summary

Houston Police Department has received the most surplus military equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense, according to an analysis of the data from the “1033 program” handled by the Law Enforcement Support Office.

The “1033 program” was approved by Congress in 1997. It allows the U.S. military to give their extra or unneeded items to local law enforcement agencies. The Law Enforcement Support Office runs the program (https://www.dla.mil/Disposition-Services/Offers/Law-Enforcement/Public-Information/) and is part of the Defense Logistics Agency within the Department of Defense. The data is released quarterly.

Other findings from the data analysis include:

• Texas has received nearly 20k non controlled items from the U.S. with a total value of over $125 million.

• Houston is the highest on the list in terms of value and quantity of items received, which is not surprising as it is the largest city in Texas. San Marcos is a relatively small city with a population of 63k, but they are third on the list for value of items received, however they are not very high on the list for quantity of items received.

• San Marcos has received the highest value of items at $3.2 million while only receiving 525 items total. However Austin has received almost three times the amount as San Marcos but their items totaled at $2.7 million.

• Houston has the highest value item which is an aircraft totaling at $5.4 million.

• The San Marcos police department has an unmanned ground vehicle. The vehicle can be operated remotely or programmed to operate a certain way. It can be used for many things from combat to transportation and the department of origin is the U.S. Army.