New York state cops are loaded up with $28M in military gear

If the zombie apocalypse ever comes to New York, towns big and small will have the weaponry to handle it.

The Pentagon has provided at least $28 million worth of equipment to 128 police departments and sheriff’s offices across the state — from the Big Apple to the tiny town of Plattsburgh — as part of a program that transfers surplus military gear to local law enforcement agencies, a Daily News analysis has found.

The $4.3 billion program — one of several that arms bluecoats with camo-grade gear — is being reviewed by Congress and the White House after Ferguson, Mo., police deployed armored vehicles and assault rifles during protests over the police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

“The program is definitely broken,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former police officer. He criticized the Department of Defense for not properly vetting whether the local agencies are trained to handle the equipment, and failing to monitor the equipment once it’s out in the field.

“Having said that . . . if you take any of this equipment out of the hands of police you run the risk of a tragic ending. Seconds can matter in an active-shooter, in a crisis situation,” he said.

New York’s biggest recipient was the state police headquarters, with $4.2 million worth of equipment — two cargo planes, seven survival vests, one helicopter and 49 image intensifiers — according to state Division of Criminal Justice Services data, obtained by the website MuckRack via a Freedom of Information Law request.

Nassau County came in second with $3.9 million — getting everything from 130 laptop cases and a coffee maker to one mine-resistant vehicle. It was followed by Suffolk County ($1.6 million), Rye Police Department ($1.2 million) and Syracuse Police Department ($853,000).

The NYPD has received $742,468 worth of equipment — four armored trucks, three night-vision goggles, two lightly armored amphibious mortar carriers, and 18 image intensifiers — although the only recent transfers were an armored truck and mortar carrier in 2012.

An NYPD spokesman said the heavy-duty vehicles “are all outmoded and inoperable.”

“They have no weapons attached to them and were not intended to be used as shooting platforms, but as a bulletproof vehicle to save people during a shooting or sniper incident,” said the spokesman, adding that two are now on display at Floyd Bennett Field.

Three state university campuses — in Morrisville, Oneonta and Old Westbury — have each obtained one utility truck and three assault rifles since 2011.

Chief Daniel Chambers of the SUNY-Oneonta Police Department told MuckRock that the utility truck is a canvas-topped Humvee used for emergency response in natural disaster or severe weather incidents.