Limited Federal Oversight Of 1033 Program

"Oversight of the 1033 Program exists, but there are gaps.⁸⁶ The only significant responsibilities placed on participating law enforcement agencies are that they not sell equipment obtained through the program and that they maintain accurate inventories of transferred equipment.
"The state coordinator is required to approve or disapprove applications for participation, but there appear to be only two criteria that must be satisfied in order for a request to be approved: (1) that the agency intends to use the equipment for a 'law enforcement purpose' (counterdrug and counterterrorism efforts are emphasized by law); and (2) that the transfer would result in a 'fair and equitable distribution' of property based on current inventory. The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) also provides that as a general matter, 'no more than one of any item per officer will be allocated.'⁸⁷ Most of the state coordinator’s other responsibilities are administrative in nature (e.g., ensuring that LESO has current and accurate points of contact, that only authorized agency requests are submitted to LESO, that participating agencies update their account information annually, etc.)."