The heavily armored police response to protesters in Ferguson, Missouri ignited a debate about the militarization of local agencies. Since 1997, sheriffs offices and police departments have been able to get free military surplus like M16s. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have increased the amount of excess equipment. But not all the equipment is being used. Since 2006, Franklin County law enforcement agencies have acquired 468 M16 rifles. While the bulk of them went to the Columbus Division of Police, most smaller police departments in the county, including townships, requested at least one M16 which arrived as a fully-automatic rifle. Police departments say they need the equipment, particularly long-range M16 rifles. I dont need to go into the history of what we call active aggressors, active shooters whether its in schools, colleges, shopping centers, everywhere else. Were all quite aware of how much thats increased in the past decade or so," Donald Schwind, Sharon Township Police Chief, said. Schwind's department received six M16 rifles in 2011. He said the federal government encouraged departments across the country to get assault rifles and train personnel on how to use them for tactical events. Schwind said the rifles help township officers contain a scene until back up arrives. Its nice to know that if we come upon situations, or respond to other agencies who have those type of situations, that we have the equipment to assist them in that," Schwind said. But in the case of Sharon Township Police, the M16s at least right now are useless. Theyre locked away. No one in the department is certified to use them, and none of the rifles have been retrofitted to be semi-automatic. Schwind said it comes down to two things: money and personnel. Ammunition is expensive. Training would have to be outsourced. Thats costly. And then theres the personnel issue. Young officers and other ones go on to larger departments," he said. "So were in a constant rotation of personnel the last few years, actually since we received the rifles. Sharon Township Police Department is one of 14 agencies in the county that requested the rifles. Madison Township Police Department is another. Interim Chief Kenneth Braden said his department received four M16 rifles in 2006. Those are like Vietnam-era rifles that we got from the government. Theyre pretty old. Braden said the department replaced them with six new rifles it purchased from a gun dealer. The government-issued M16s are locked away in inventory. The U.S. Defense Department said local agencies must use the equipment within a year or return it. But Braden said thats difficult. Its a little hard to give them back. You can transfer stuff to other agencies," Braden said. "Its a lot faster than trying to get them back. But for right now were just going to hold on to them. None of the township departments we talked to have used their government-issued guns for police operations, only at shooting ranges for training - or never at all. Upper Arlington Police Chief Brian Quinn said his departments nine M16s are capable of being deployed if needed. Franklin Township PD reports its M16s have never been used. Columbus Police received 350 military surplus M16s. Chief Kim Jacobs said the department needs the weapons to match fire power of certain criminals. "There are definitely times when, if we don't overwhelm with the power that we have, with the force that we have, with the equipment that we have, with just the numbers that we might have, our community could suffer," Jacobs said. The increased militarization of police department has worried civil rights activists. Ohio ACLU spokesman Greg Daniels is critical of how often police departments use military-style weapons, particularly in minority communities. While Daniels acknowledges there are serious instances during which the equipment should be used, he said it isnt necessary for most police assignments. Daniels wants more government regulation on how the weapons are utilized. What you have is the decision to deploy these weapons and what kind of weapons is left exclusively up to the police department, and thats not good enough," Daniels said. "As situations have shown, they have misused these [weapons]. They have deployed these in situations where they are not appropriate. Ohio law enforcement agencies have received more than $66 million in military surplus equipment, since 2002.