STATE SCRAPS FEDERAL PROGRAM OFFERING MILITARY SURPLUS

OKLAHOMA CITY -- State officials say a federal program that offers military
surplus equipment to law enforcement agencies is too much trouble to
administer. No one in state government wants to handle the paperwork,
compliance checks, legal liability and other strings attached to the
federal Law Enforcement Support Office program.

"Believe me, it is fraught with problems," said Tom Jaworski, director of
state purchasing.

The state must coordinate the program because federal agencies don't want
to mess with hundreds of police and sheriff's departments that are looking
for everything from gas masks and Kevlar vests to helicopters.

Municipal purchasing staffs don't have enough people or expertise to handle
paramilitary-type equipment such as Lawton's Navy blue "Dragoon" armored
personnel carrier.

"When that thing shows up escorted between two police cars with lights
flashing, it's a definite psychological advantage," said Michael Johnson,
Lawton's deputy chief of police.

State purchasing arranges transfers of surplus small arms -- pistols and
rifles -- from the military to law enforcement agencies.

Many states have had problems with larger military surplus programs,
Jaworski said. States must perform compliance audits on military arms
equipment, making sure that it goes to legitimate law enforcement agencies,
that it remains with them and that it is used for a public purpose.

Jaworski also is concerned about problems with other non-arms surplus
materials, some of which have been known to end up in private hands, sold
on public auctions or otherwise funneled to nonqualifying owners.

A logical alternative to a full program, Jaworski said, would be for the
Department of Public Safety to evaluate weaponry and other military
equipment and to verify requesting departments and their needs.

The department has the law enforcement expertise needed to handle the
program and the staffers who can evaluate federal law enforcement
equipment, he said.

"We have asked DPS to do that, and they will not do that," Jaworski said.

Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks, on vacation and unavailable for
comment, considered taking on the support program in 1999, spokesman Lt.
Chris West said.

"For one reason or another, the commissioner opted not to do that," West said.

Like many law enforcement agencies, the Department of Public Safety has
benefited from military surplus. It owns two used military helicopters, but
West said those were obtained from the Missouri State Patrol and an Arizona
sheriff's department through a different program.