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Heat-seeking cameras that see you in the dark, sometimes even through walls. Firepower and vehicles for “dealing with crowd management security and potential civil disturbances.” “Specialized crime scene mapping technology,” encrypted radios, and data-collection software for “gathering intelligence and enhancing surveillance.” Using federal funds earmarked for Covid-19 relief, these and hundreds of other requests to militarize police forces have been green-lit on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime, according to government disclosures reviewed by Rolling Stone
Using stimulus from the multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act, which passed in March 2020, the Department of Justice has awarded at least $845.8 million of emergency grants to state and local law enforcement officers across the U.S. and its colonized territories. The relief has gone to more than 1,800 of these agencies, ranging from $30,000 boosters for small-town cops to tens of millions of dollars for a single police department in states like Florida and Texas. In legally required public spending reports, some of these agencies have since followed up with details on how they’re using the grant money. And though a chunk of those reported expenses cover basics like PPE, much of it subsidizes militarization, surveillance, and tech that would be funded with or without a pandemic, from encrypted radios to body cameras to a range of communications upgrades.
