Written by Kyle McCarthy   

The US Department of Defense has a specific program to provide: "surplus DoD military equipment to state and local civilian law enforcement agencies for use in counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism operations, and to enhance officer safety" (Excess Property Program, or 1033 Program). This equipment can account for things like planes and helicopters, grenade launchers and assault rifles.

Thanks to a series of FOIA requests, The New York Times has collected data on the states that received surplus military gear through the program since 2006.

Below are several charts showing just how much military gear local law enforcement has been acquiring each year.
Data from us-military-gear.silk.co

Data from us-military-gear.silk.co

Data from us-military-gear.silk.co