SAN ANTONIO — The tiny town of Live Oak — a 4.8-square-mile bedroom community past San Antonio's city limits on the Northeast Side — is in possession of the only military-surplus Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle in Bexar County.
The cops there aren't preparing for battle against a group of insurgents planting roadside bombs.
The Live Oak Police Department is a member of a nine-jurisdiction SWAT team that responds to incidents in the area. The team had long been missing an essential element: an armored vehicle. But it's gotten one through the federal Defense Logistics Agency's 1033 Program, which distributes military surplus across the United States.
“Over the years, the SWAT team has not had an armored asset,” Police Chief Ken Evans said. “And that is one of the critical pieces that a SWAT team needs to be able to facilitate the mission safely, whether that's evacuating civilians in the middle of an active-shooter scenario ... or driving up into a front yard of a residence where you're trying to establish negotiations with somebody that has a long rifle that can reach out and touch you.”
Evans said the armored vehicles have gotten a bad rap recently. When civil unrest broke out last month in Ferguson, Missouri, officers there donned riot gear and arrived on the scene in menacing armored vehicles (which appear not to have been 1033 Program MRAPs). That incident has the potential of harming law enforcement efforts across the country.
“I think the challenge we have today is that there's a lot of political innuendo being thrown out there about the militarization of civilian police,” Evans said. “The reality is those vehicles are nothing more than armor that prevents somebody inside from being injured.”
But in the aftermath of the Ferguson incident, in which officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, MRAPs that have been distributed across the U.S. through the 1033 Program have come under intense scrutiny.
President Barack Obama has called for a review of the program, which disburses surplus military equipment — from parkas to pistols, machine guns to drones and night-vision goggles to helicopters — to local law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
And U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate's second-highest ranking leader, asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to review the program.
The Live Oak Police Department is the only agency in Bexar County that has received an MRAP through the program. But according to a database provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety under the state's open-records law, several other agencies have received other tactical gear.
VIA Metropolitan Transit's police force, for example, received at least five M-14 rifles chambered in 7.62 millimeters and 18 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols. The San Antonio Independent School District Police Department received four tactical vests, and the San Antonio Police Department has a surplus bomb robot, which cost the military more than $177,000 when it was purchased.
Bexar County constables have acquired M-14 and M-16 rifles, along with a night-vision scope and night-vision goggles.
Local officials have said their agencies don't pay for the surplus items, divided into two categories — including tactical gear, which is tracked by the feds and must be returned once it's no longer being used.
Much of the gear, including all the firearms, are given serial numbers and are tracked by the DLA.
A database published last week by National Public Radio shows that more than 70 MRAPs have been distributed across Texas, from the Alvin Police Department to the Van Zandt County Sheriff's Office.
In Central Texas, eight contiguous counties, spanning from San Antonio to north of Austin, have received MRAPs through the 1033 Program. Boerne Police Chief Jim Kohler said his department, which has an MRAP, joined with the Kendall County Sheriff's Office and the Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department to form an emergency-response team.
In the past, officers in the area have had to wait for hours to get help from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office SWAT team, he said. It's possible that there could be an incident where time plays a significant factor.
“I want to be able to protect my community as soon as I can,” Kohler said. “My No. 1 concern is protection of police officers and citizens.”
While he hopes the unit never has to deploy the MRAP, Kohler said the team is going through a yearlong intensive training program to ensure that it can handle scenarios such as active shooters and barricaded individuals shooting at officers.
The story of military MRAPs making their way into U.S. communities through the 1033 Program is a complex one, and it's compounded by local agencies not being precluded from buying armored vehicles, which have become commonplace.
The San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff's Office have armored vehicles, but they've not been obtained through the federal surplus program.
Evans said there are emergency teams along the Interstate 35 corridor with armored vehicles — some from the 1033 Program and others purchased from companies that make them.
Evans said he doesn't want to judge his counterparts in Ferguson because he doesn't know all the details of the incident there. But he echoes what SAPD Chief William McManus has said about his own department: that he wouldn't send an armored vehicle into a demonstration by concerned residents.
“At first blush,” Evans said, “I would say I don't think it's a good idea to send an armored asset to a civil disturbance.”
jbaugh@express-news.net
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©2014 the San Antonio Express-News. Distributed by MCT Information Services.
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