The Trump administration is lifting a controversial ban on the transfer of surplus military equipment to state and local police departments, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday.
President Trump will sign an executive order Monday reinstating the Pentagon program, Sessions said.
Former President Obama put a halt to the so-called 1033 program in 2015 after images of heavily armed police responding to protests in Ferguson, Mo., shocked the nation.
Obama’s initiatives blocked the transfer of armored vehicles, grenade launchers, armed aircraft, bayonets and guns and ammunition of .50 caliber or higher.
“Those restrictions went too far,” Sessions said Monday. “We will not put superficial concerns above public safety. All you need to do is turn on a TV right now to see that for Houstonians this isn’t about appearances, it’s about getting the job done and getting everyone to safety.”
The ban was part of the previous administration’s efforts to re-establish trust between law enforcement and the communities they police, after a string of police-related deaths of black men in Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston, S.C., and elsewhere. At the time, Obama warned that such equipment cast the police in the role of an “occupying force,” deepening divisions with distrustful communities.
Trump has fashioned himself since his campaign as a “law and order” president who will restore an American way of life that the administration has warned is beset by worsening violence, including rising levels of violence against law enforcement.
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#BREAKING: White House reverses Obama ban on allowing police to buy military equipment https://t.co/05UhvZ9QUu pic.twitter.com/JXqAZTk24a
— The Hill (@thehill) August 28, 2017
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