Contact: Sarah Feldman (print) or Anamarie Rebori (broadcast) – 202-228-6263
TOMORROW: McCaskill Hearing to Focus on Militarization
of Local Police Departments After Ferguson Violence
Senator’s Tuesday hearing will be held by the full Senate Homeland Security Committee
WASHINGTON – Following the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Mo. police officer, and subsequent clashes between local police and protestors, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill will lead a Senate hearing to examine the militarization of state and local police departments.
McCaskill’s hearing in the full Senate Homeland Security Committee will begin at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, September 9 in Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-342. The hearing will be live-streamed online, HERE.
Witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing will include:
- Alan F. Estevez, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Department of Defense
- Brian E. Kamoie, Assistant Administrator for Grant Programs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Karol Mason, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice
- Chief Jim Bueermann, President of the Police Foundation
- Dr. Peter B. Kraska, Professor, School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University
- Mark Lomax, Executive Director at the National Tactical Officers Association, accompanied by Major Ed Allen, Seminole County Sheriff’s Office
- Wiley Price, Photojournalist with the St. Louis American Newspaper
- Hilary O. Shelton, Washington Bureau Director and Senior Vice President for Advocacy at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Specifically, McCaskill will use the hearing to examine federal programs that enable local police departments to acquire military equipment, such as the Defense Department’s 1033 program for surplus property and grants made through the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. She plans to gather stakeholders from all sides in order to hear several perspectives, including those of local law enforcement.
Oversight of Federal Programs for Equipping State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Tuesday, September 9
10:30 a.m. ET
Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-342
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