UPDATED: August 22, 2014, 9:45 a.m.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
Last year, the Maui County Police Department rolled out a new, quarter-million-dollar \u201cBearCat\u201d \u2014 an armored vehicle capable of repelling .50 caliber projectiles.<\/p>\n
Marketed as a S.W.A.T or military attack and rescue vehicle, it would help keep officers safe during high-risk operations, Maui Police Chief Gary Yabuta said at the time.<\/p>\n
This week, William Juan, a spokesman for the Friendly Isle\u2019s police department, said he didn\u2019t know if the vehicle has ever been used and that he couldn\u2019t talk about the types of special missions it might be suitable for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to say what we do as far as our tactical operations and tactical plan,\u201d he\u00a0 said, adding that it could jeopardize the safety of police officers.<\/p>\n
The Maui Police Department’s BearCat.<\/p>\n
Maui County<\/p><\/div>\n
The Honolulu Police Department also has a BearCat used for responding to “chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive” attacks, according to the Police Department\u2019s 2009 annual report.<\/p>\n
HPD has also acquired millions of dollars worth of tactical gear and security equipment, including a high-tech, mobile command center, acoustic devices used for controlling crowds that emit high-pitched tones<\/a> capable of causing hearing loss and thousands of pepper spray projectiles, taser cartridges and bean bag ammunition, government reports and records show.<\/p>\n
Just two months before unrest broke out in Ferguson, the U.S. House of Representatives voted against a measure<\/a> that would help “demilitarize” the police. But now President Barack\u00a0Obama and federal lawmakers, including Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, are calling for a review of programs that have helped supply police departments with military weapons.<\/p>\n
“The increasing use of military equipment, weapons, and tactics against our own citizens is unacceptable and must stop,” Gabbard told the Wall Street Journal<\/em> this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n
HPD Provides Few Details<\/h2>\n
Much of the military-style gear being showcased in Ferguson and other cities in recent years comes from surplus equipment distributed by the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Logistics Agency and from grant programs initiated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the wake of\u00a0the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n
Hawaii hasn\u2019t participated in the Pentagon’s\u00a0program in a decade, according to Toni Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety. And according to HPD, the only thing it acquired through the program was office furniture \u2014\u00a0mainly file cabinets.<\/p>\n
UPDATE<\/strong>:\u00a0After this story was published, Civil Beat received information from the Defense Logistics Agency that contradicts these claims. According to DLA, Hawaii law enforcement agencies\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0received military tactical equipment under the Pentagon’s program, known as 1033, including three mine resistant vehicles that were shipped to Honolulu in March. In recent years, Hawaii also received four military utility trucks, a night vision image intesnsifier, infrared illuminator and “close quarters batt,” according to DLA.<\/p>\n
Hawaii, like other states, has also received tens of millions of dollars through the Homeland Security Grant Program, intended to help states and counties prepare for terrorist threats and other disasters.<\/p>\n
The federal government has doled out $40 billion in grants to states and counties throughout the country since 2002, according to the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Yu didn\u2019t respond to Civil Beat\u2019s request for a tour of the facility.<\/p>\n
Reports Document Some Acquisitions<\/h2>\n
Annual HPD reports provide some sense of the types of equipment the department has acquired in recent years.<\/p>\n
In addition to the BearCat, the HPD also acquired a MD-500E helicopter with \u201cglobal positioning system capabilities” in 2009.<\/p>\n
That year, the department received $1.85 million in Homeland Security funds, which were used to purchase a mobile command center, satellite systems for its Alapai and Kapolei stations and \u201cchemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive personal protective equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the shopping list were 25,000 pepper spray projectiles and 18,000 units of bean bag ammunition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In 2010, the department received $1.35 million in Homeland Security grants to support \u201csecurity equipment,\u201d according to HPD\u2019s annual report<\/a>, which didn\u2019t include further details.<\/p>\n
From 2009 to 2011, HPD also acquired $700,000 in so-called \u201cnon-lethal\u201d or \u201cless-lethal\u201d weapon technologies, according to past reporting from Civil Beat<\/a> \u2014\u00a0much of it purchased in preparation for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in November 2011.<\/p>\n
On the shopping list were 25,000 pepper spray projectiles and 18,000 units of bean bag ammunition \u2014 which according to one vendor<\/a>, produces \u201ca painful and powerful blunt impact reducing your liability profile in relation to lethal ammunition.\u201d<\/p>\n