The High Costs of Free MRAPs
The Moundsville Police Department has added a vehicle to the fleet! I’ll tell you everything this MRAP offers- and explain how the department get it for free- tonight on @WTOV9 pic.twitter.com/qveCV7X1i9
— Jaime Baker (@JBaker_WTOV) June 18, 2020
You’ve heard us talk here at Strong Towns about how the Suburban Experiment trades short-term wealth for long-term liabilities. As humans, we’re wired to want things now, especially things that create an immediate (illusory) influx of wealth, without taking into account how that will affect the future. This is true not just of building miles of new roads or the latest megaproject, but in subtler ways too. A few weeks ago, when I saw this tweet going around, about a small town in West Virginia debuting its “free” new MRAP—(mine-resistant ambush protected) vehicle — I approached it from a Strong Towns perspective.
Using what is most commonly known as the 1033 program, law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and its territories are able to obtain excess military equipment that would otherwise be destroyed. This program is free to law enforcement agencies; they only have to pay for shipping. Most of the equipment that is transferred into the hands of law enforcement is fairly inconsequential: blankets, boots, radios, computer monitors, even some forklifts. But some of the equipment is less inconspicuous. Perhaps the most infamous use is the acquisition of MRAP vehicles by local police departments.
MRAPS were developed in response to the growing number of U.S. casualties being killed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during the Iraq War. Nearly $50 billion was invested in the program, and about 24,000 vehicles were procured. With the MRAP program ended, domestic law enforcement agencies are sometimes given the surplus vehicles, some of which weigh up to 20 tons.
The argument frequently goes like this: acquiring this equipment is free, so why not get it, just in case? Aside from the optics problem that stems from equipping civilian police officers with military-grade equipment (which has been written about all over the place), there is a very real financial problem with doing so. Acquiring the equipment may initially be free, but what are the long-term costs?
In a 2014 blog post published by Citizens Against Government Waste staff member Sean Kennedy quoted Major Rodney Lipscomb II who said that, “MRAPs consistently require replacements of heavy-duty transmissions, engines, axles, and tires..” This amount of maintenance for a specialized military equipment is likely to cost a lot. Even in instances when the vehicle remains stored away from long periods of time, a regular amount of maintenance will still be required. John W. Whitehead, President of the Rutherford Institute, wrote in a letter to the City Council of Nampa, Idaho that the costs associated with acquiring military equipment like the MRAP “can add up to tens of thousands of dollars yearly in maintenance and repair.” In some extreme cases, acquiring what looks like a free piece of heavy-duty equipment has ended up costing a town and its residents upwards of $2 million dollars.
It turns out that “free” can come with a lot of costs.
The 1033 program allows for an efficient reallocation of basic supplies and equipment from the federal government to local law enforcement agencies. But in order to truly thrive, our communities need a radically new way of thinking about the way we build our world. In part, this means that we prioritize resilience over efficiency.
When making decisions about how to allocate resources, cities and towns across the country must ask themselves, “Is this immediately addressing a community struggle?” It’s the standard we apply to roads, sidewalks, and pipes. And it applies to deciding whether a piece of heavy-duty military equipment is actually the best use of your community’s time, energy, and resources.
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