Four Tennessee Agencies Suspended From Military Surplus Program

WUOT | By Chrissy Keuper

Published September 4, 2014 at 9:48 AM EDT

State officials said four agencies have been suspended from a program that provides surplus military rifles to law enforcement because of an inability to keep track of guns.

The Tennessean newspaper reports that last year, a Tennessee Highway Patrol captain retired after two M-14 rifles went missing. An M-16 rifle was stolen in June from a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency truck. The Columbia Police Department and the Claiborne County Sheriff's Department have also been suspended for the same reasons.

So far, the program has given $121 million in gear to Tennessee. President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the program following clashes between police and demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, in August, 2014.

Chrissy Keuper

Chrissy served as WUOT's News Director and host of monthly public affairs talk show Dialogue from late 2021 to early 2023. Her first job with the station was as weekend student announcer while earning her bachelor's in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee. She had previously been the station's local host for NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered news programs; occasionally filled in as host for WUOT's Morning and Afternoon Concerts; and won multiple awards for her interviews, feature stories, and Dialogue.

See stories by Chrissy Keuper