Last month, the small-town-turned-warzone known as Ferguson, Missouri, brought to light a program that many Americans may have been unaware of: the Department of Defense Excess Property Program, otherwise known as the Pentagon’s 1033 program.

Since 1997, the Pentagon has been giving local police departments across the country more than $5.1 billion worth of leftover military equipment and weaponry that had either been turned in by military units or pulled out of reserve stocks. This includes the shields, tanks, combat gear and tear gas that militarized the tiny Ferguson police department when it went against citizens engaging in peaceful protests over the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown.

After keeping up with the goings-on in Ferguson and paying close attention to news articles and witness testimonies, I caught sight of a headline a couple of weeks ago that rang horrifyingly similar. Not only does the 1033 program distribute weaponry and equipment to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies, it also delivers to the doorsteps of colleges and universities across the country.

MuckRock, an organization that specializes in filing governmental requests for information through the Freedom of Information Act, recently uncovered that more than 100 colleges have received equipment through this program.

Some examples are Florida International University, which was the lucky winner of military grade rifles; Ohio State, which received a Mine Resistant Ambush Protection Vehicle (or MRAP); and Florida State, which houses an Army Humvee.

Because of student populations in the tens of thousands, each of the schools in this program has its own fully-functional police department. It’s hard to imagine using these kinds of equipment and weaponry at St. Thomas—which boasts about 6,000 undergraduates—but I question the motivation of using leftover weaponry even at large universities.

As Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson, who introduced the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014, asked, are college kids getting too rowdy? What kind of trouble is campus police really expecting to find?

According to the Defense Logistics Agency website, any police agency that wants to participate in the 1033 program has to meet the following criteria:
-Its primary function has to be enforcing the law.
-Its officers need to be properly compensated.
-Its officers have to possess the power to arrest and apprehend.

But we need to consider the population with whom these agencies are actually dealing. When I told a friend about this topic, her immediate reaction was to ask why a place of education has any need for weaponry in the first place. As she pointed out, aren’t war and destruction the exact opposites of what knowledge is supposed to push us toward?

While it can be argued that campus police are dealing with off-campus threats in addition to student misconducts, I think city police exist for exactly this reason. If things get especially out of hand, larger departments with additional equipment may need to be called in. But considering that the majority of crime seen on college campuses is underage drunken antics or petty theft, their officers really don’t need to be so well-equipped.

Some view these weapons as serving a preventative measure against school shootings – a fair point. A potential perpetrator may think twice if he or she knows extensive defense measures are in place. Others say this equipment is necessary in the case of destructive student riots. I’ll grant campus cops that crowd control is not an easy feat. But if what happened in Ferguson is anything to go by, then trying to stop a protest with intimidation tactics, tear gas and rubber bullets is not the answer.

Of course, there are a few benefits to the program. Participating colleges and universities can get anything from cold weather overalls to office furniture and supplies. Central Washington University got a new minivan and generator, while Florida State used its Humvee to navigate campus after a bad flood. But the giving should stop there.

The militarization of police forces is already going too far, and the problem doesn’t need to extend to colleges as well. We need to be teaching young adults, who hold the future of our country in their hands, a more peaceful approach.

Let’s try providing college cops with the resources to hire more officers, so they won’t need to stretch their forces so thin. Let’s try giving them training on how to peacefully diffuse protest or riot situations, instead of going in with heavy artillery and making matters worse.

These 100 and counting schools can keep their cold weather gear, their office furniture and whatever other small equipment they need to run smoothly. They can even keep their Humvees. But the deliverance of dangerous weapons better fit for an army soldier than the campus security officer who will walk you home at night needs to stop.

Jamie Bernard can be reached at bern2479@stthomas.edu.