WASHINGTON – Arizona state agencies have received enough military equipment from the Department of Defense’s program 1033 to outfit a small country, and have more armored vehicles and military helicopters than 20 of them.
Police and other agencies in the state had 29 armored personnel carriers and nine military helicopters, according to inventories taken within the past year for program 1033, one of the Pentagon’s surplus equipment programs.
Libya, a country with roughly the same population as Arizona, had 11 APCs and 12 helicopters in 2014, according to the annual report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
It was one of six countries with more helicopters but fewer APCs than Arizona. Another 20 countries had fewer of both.
“Our local communities are not combat war zones, and yet that’s exactly how these programs are incentivized,” said Alessandra Soler, executive director for the Phoenix chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The national ACLU has criticized federal programs that allocate surplus military equipment to police departments and other local agencies, and has specifically called out Arizona.
The best defense
Arizona police and other agencies have received millions of dollars worth of free gear under a Defense Department program. Looked at another way, the state has received more helicopters and armored personnel carriers than the militaries of some nations.
– Arizona: 29 armored personnel carriers; 9 helicopters; 6.5 million population
– Mauritania: 25 APCs; 3 helicopters; 3.4 million
– Niger: 24 APCs; 5 helicopters; 16.9 million
– Tajikistan: 23 APCs; 15 helicopters; 7.9 million
– Benin: 22 APCs; 5 helicopters; 9.9 million
– Djibouti: 20 APCs; 5 helicopters; 0.8 million
– Mali: 19 APCs; 4 helicopters; 16.0 million
– Mauritius: 16 APCs; 6 helicopters; 1.3 million
– Suriname: 15 APCs; 0 helicopters; 0.6 million
– Tanzania: 14 APCs; 9 helicopters; 48.3 million
– Burkina Faso: 13 APCs; 6 helicopters; 17.8 million
– Libya: 11 APCs; 12 helicopters; 6.0 million
– Malawi: 10 APCs; 3 helicopters; 16.8 million
– Equatorial Guinea: 10 APCs; 10 helicopters; 0.7 million
– Latvia: 8 APCs; 6 helicopters; 2.1 million
– Jamaica: 4 APCs; 7 helicopters; 2.9 million
– South Sudan: 0 APCs; 10 helicopters; 11.1 million
– Honduras: 0 APCs; 10 helicopters; 8.4 million
– Papua-New Guinea: 0 APCs; 7 helicopters; 6.4 million
– Lesotho: 0 APCs; 5 helicopters; 1.9 million
– Costa Rica: 0 APCs; 3 helicopters; 4.7 million
– Trinidad and Tobago: 0 APCs; 3 helicopters; 1.2 million
– Guyana: 0 APCs; 3 helicopters; 0.7 million
– Malta: 0 APCs; 3 helicopters; 0.4 million
– Sierra Leone: 0 APCs; 2 helicopters; 5.6 million
– Timor-Leste: 0 APCs; 0 helicopters; 1.2 million
– Cape Verde: 0 APCs; 0 helicopters; 0.5 million
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