Policing through subsidized firepower: An assessment of rational choice and minority threat explanations of police participation in the 1033 program*

• Date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12212
• Published date: 01 May 2019

DOI: 10.1111/1745-9125.12212

CORRIGENDUM

Policing through subsidized firepower: An

assessment of rational choice and minority threat

explanations of police participation in the 1033

program*

Recently, wewere contacted regarding a clarification of the descr iptions of the LawEnforcement Sup-

port Office (LESO) data we used for our analyses in our November 2018 Criminology article (Ramey

& Steidley, 2018). This contact prompted us to reexamine our LESO data and our description of it.

After discovering a discrepancy in our data description, as well as in how these LESO data have been

examined in previous data, we contacted the editors who suggested we outline our concerns and any

limitations to our original article.1

1CLARIFICATION OF ERROR

We made an error in our description of the data used to construct our dependent variables. To create

measures of 1033 participation and total property values, we relied on LESO spreadsheets. Consistent

with prior research in which 1033 Program data were used, we understood these spreadsheets to be a

“roster of all equipment transferred from the [Department of Defense] DoD to law enforcement agen-

cies (LEAs) from 1990 up to the present” (Haynes & McQuoid, 2017, p. 7). In actuality, the LESO

spreadsheets are intended to provide quarterly “snapshots”of items in LEA possession dur ing the most

recent quarter, not a complete history of the program (see Davenport et al., 2018). LESO records of

1033 property are based on items’ demilitarized (DEMIL) codes, which indicate any modification

requirements for items prior to their release from DoD possession. Items that do not require modifica-

tion (e.g., clothing and office supplies) are considered “noncontrolled” and remain DoD property for

1 year before becoming LEA property. Items requiring modifications beforebeing transferred to local

law enforcement are considered “controlled” and receive DEMIL codes corresponding to the modifi-

cations required. Controlled items, which include weapons, vehicles, and tactical equipment, remain

DoD property and are in effect on open-ended loan to LEAs. Noncontrolled items are removed from

*Additional supporting information, along with an extended version of this correction, can be found in the listing forthis ar ticle

in the Wiley Online Library at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/crim.2018.56.issue-4/issuetoc

Direct correspondence to David M. Ramey, Department of Sociology and Criminology, 414 OswaldTower, The Pennsylvania

State University,University Park, PA 16802 (e-mail: dmr45@psu.edu).

1We thank Edward Lawson Jr. for private communication bringing these concerns regarding the LESO spreadsheets to our

attention.

Criminology. 2019;57:369–372. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crim © 2019 American Society of Criminology 369