Protect Local Police From Federal Grants and Mandates

Why it Matters

The federal government is increasingly meddling in and taking control over local law enforcement, threatening the autonomy of local police and leading to a federalized national police force. State legislators must enact strong legislation nullifying nationalized law enforcement and reject all federal law-enforcement grants.

One of the many ways America is exceptional is that it is the only country whose law enforcement is completely locally controlled. Every other country has at least some national control over law enforcement. Furthermore, under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government has no role in domestic law enforcement; such activities are reserved to the states and, by extension, localities.

However, this important feature is under attack in the United States. Initiated and led by communists and Marxists, there is an active push to destroy locally controlled police and replace them with a nationalized police force. Unfortunately, many “conservatives” have also supported greater federal involvement and oversight in law enforcement.

One of the primary methods for undermining locally controlled police is federal grants. Although the federal government has no constitutional authorization to fund local law enforcement, the number and quantity of law-enforcement grants have ballooned. The article “Strings Attached: Federal Takeover of Local Police Via Grants,” published in the February 10, 2025 issue of The New American (available as a reprint), explains the dangers of federal grants in more detail.

Additionally, the article “Police: National or Local?” published in the October 31, 2022 issue of The New American, lists several examples of federal meddling in local law enforcement. They include:

• COPS: The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in the Department of Justice was established by Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno, with plans to implement a six-year, $8.8 billion grant program that would enable state and local law-enforcement agencies to hire or redeploy 100,000 additional police officers. Since 1994, COPS has invested more than $14 billion to help advance federally directed “community policing.”

• Buffer Zone Protection Program (BZPP): Under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the BZPP is flooding local jurisdictions with Big Brother surveillance technology such as night-vision cameras, facial-recognition technology, license-plate readers, traffic light camera video feeds, etc.

• FLETC: Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), according to the FLETC website, “provide tuition-free and low cost training to state, local, campus, tribal and territorial law enforcement agencies. Programs are conducted across the United States and are normally hosted by a local law enforcement agency. Training is also conducted at FLETC facilities located in Glynco (Brunswick), GA; Artesia, NM; Charleston, SC; and Cheltenham, MD.”

• Fusion centers: According to DHS, “Fusion centers conduct analysis and facilitate information sharing, assisting law enforcement and homeland security partners in preventing, protecting against, and responding to crime and terrorism.” By the end of 2012, the DHS had marked 1,849 locations scattered throughout the 50 states that would serve as regional surveillance collection centers. The DHS has spent many millions of dollars establishing these federal-local “collaborative” efforts. They have not exhibited a single terrorist caught during the program, though thwarting terrorism served as justification for the program.

• 1033 Program: Section 1033 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997 gave the secretary of defense permanent authority to militarize local law enforcement by transferring war-fighting equipment — tanks, Humvees, MRAPs, Bearcats, Stingrays (for cellphone monitoring), full-auto rifles, grenade launchers, and more — to police, ostensibly to fight the “war on drugs” and “war on terrorism.” This juicy carrot comes with the stick of federal training and monitoring. The same “progressives” who supported this militarization of the police now denounce this militarization of the police.

The Solution

In response to this erosion of locally controlled police, state legislators must:

1. Pass strong legislation nullifying all federal efforts to influence or control state and local law enforcement.
2. Refuse to cooperate with or participate in federal law-enforcement programs.
3. Refuse acceptance of federal grants.

Local police and county sheriffs are key to protecting citizens against tyranny, but in countries with federalized police, nothing is stopping the central government from violating people’s God-given rights. The autonomy of our local police is paramount to the survival of our Republic. Accordingly, contact your state legislators, and urge them to defend both the U.S. Constitution and locally controlled law enforcement.