Civil rights groups have expressed concern about providing military-grade weapons to law enforcement officials in school who are perceived to be inappropriately using their authority granted by school disturbance laws. "Arming school police with military-grade weapons and gear creates the potential to contribute to climates that students of color already experience as hostile, and contributes to the normalization of the criminalization of these youth, worsening educational outcomes, and producing no public safety benefits." The U.S. Department of Defense's 1033 surplus equipment program has since 1997 donated local and school police with over $5 billion surplus equipment, including armored vehicles, M-14 and M-16 semiautomatic rifles, extended magazines, automatic pistols, tactical vests, SWAT gear, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, and grenade launchers (used for launching tear gas). School police in at least 22 districts have received such weapons in eight states: California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Texas, and Utah. The Defense Department stated that these school districts would likely only use this equipment in cooperation with other law-enforcement agencies. This program was suspended by the Obama administration in 2014 after the Ferguson unrest and restored in 2017 under the Trump administration.