How the Iraq War turbocharged police militarization
Polygraph | Newsletter n°296 | 24 Mar 2025
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: A look at how combat gear deployed in Iraq made its way back to local police departments through the 1033 program, and how to shut it down.
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Situation
Last week marked the 22nd anniversary of the US war in Iraq. One of the ways the war is still with us is through the so-called “1033 program,” which enables police to acquire excess military gear from the Pentagon for free.1 The 1033 program predates the Iraq war by over a decade, but this Pentagon-to-police pipeline really didn’t start getting national attention until after the US troop drawdown from Iraq.
The 1033 program
While there were some discussions about the program in the 1990s and 2000s — like after the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle — it largely flew under the radar until the heavily-armed police response to the Ferguson, Missouri, protests put it in the national spotlight in 2014.
Since then, the 1033 program regularly comes up whenever police respond to protests with a militarized show of force. And for good reason — according to the Pentagon’s Law Enforcement Support Office (which manages the program), more than 8,800 state and local law enforcement agencies have received equipment through the program.
What does any of this have to do with the Iraq War? The troop withdrawal created a ton of surplus armament, which the US military doesn’t like having (otherwise, it’s harder to justify the obscene budget requests it sends to Congress every year). The 1033 program allows it to quickly shed surplus gear.
The Pentagon’s procedure for disposing of “excess” property gives preferential treatment to state and local law enforcement agencies — outside of the military branches, police get first dibs on surplus weapons and equipment. As the chart below shows, as US military forces returned home, massive quantities of combat gear started going to state and local police.
Should the 1033 program be eliminated
Yes. There are many reasons why the 1033 program should be eliminated, but the primary one is that it makes police more violent: there is a direct correlation between the amount of military gear transferred to police and the number of people (and dogs) police kill. There’s also a stunning lack of oversight — for example, in 2017, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) created a fictional police department and was able to acquire over $1.2 million worth of weapons from the Pentagon. It’s also incredibly wasteful — one-third of the equipment transferred through the program is brand new.
Two options for eliminating the 1033 program
Here are two ways to shut down this harmful program:
1. Legislation
An act of Congress can eliminate the 1033 program. Allow me to quickly write a bill that would do that:
Chapter 153 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking section 2576a.
I’ll let you all come up with a name for the legislation.
2. Executive order
This isn’t a permanent fix like the first option is, but it’s a quick and easy one. As commander-in-chief, the president can at any time recall military equipment that police acquired from the Pentagon. Why? Because the 1033 program is technically a loan program. Ownership of the military-grade equipment — technically classified as “controlled property” — isn’t officially given to police. Yes, police maintain, store, and use this equipment, but it remains Pentagon property no matter how long a law enforcement agency has had it. (Conversely, police take full ownership of the innocuous, civilian items transferred via 1033 — “uncontrolled property” like printers, gloves, and socks — after one year.)
*
The majority of voters support ending the 1033 program. Joe Biden did not. During his first week in office, the White House announced that Biden was going to sign an executive order recalling a limited amount of military gear. But after a successful lobbying effort by police associations, he never signed one. Fitting, I guess — Biden has backed the 1033 program the whole way. It was first established as a pilot program through the 1990 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — which then-senator Biden supported — before it was enshrined in permanent law through the 1997 NDAA, which Biden voted for too. He was also a champion of the Iraq War, which ultimately turbocharged the 1033 program.
^Alt text for screen readers: As U.S. troops left Iraq, their combat gear went to police. This graph compares the number of U.S. troops deployed to Iraq and the value of Pentagon property acquired by police through the 1033 program. As troop levels fell, the value of matériel transferred to police increased. Data: DLA, LESO, CRS.
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-Stephen (Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Bluesky)
Nominally for free. Acquisition costs are covered, but police still have to pay for transportation, maintenance, storage, and operational costs.