On Thursday, Sept. 11, the Newark City Council held a public hearing on Newark Police Department’s list of “Military Equipment.” This is part of the city’s compliance with state law requiring the police department to get council approval before funding, purchasing and using the equipment.
The city report says the department does own equipment that is considered “Military Equipment” under state law, but it doesn’t mean the items were from the military or were made for “military use.” The list of qualified “Military Equipment” includes drones, a mobile command vehicle, patrol rifles, SWAT rifles, noise flash divisionary device and a PepperBall Launcher.
After the public hearing, Councilmember Terrence Grindall said the name of the state law is unfortunate. “I think it’s really unfortunate language to use, kind of inflammatory, and where I see that the use Newark makes of this equipment to be something beneficial to the community,” he said.
Acting Lieutenant Yama Homayoun said they held a required community engagement meeting for residents to take a look at the equipment inside one of their training rooms and ask questions.
