A new law included in the National Defense Authorization Act now requires that federal agents identify themselves to protestors after a year of confusion between camo-clad feds and military personnel in cities across the country.
When protests erupted in June of last year, it quickly became apparent that just because an individual was wearing what appeared to be a military uniform, did not mean that individual was a member of the Armed Forces. Federal law enforcement agents hit the streets in multicam get-ups with no visible name labels, badges or government agency identifications. Videos of questionable conduct from some of these individuals went viral -- and to the untrained eye, they may have looked like military troops at first glance.
When the confusion continued in Portland, Oregon, the Department of Defense formally voiced concern over the seeming uniform appropriation. In response to videos of individuals in military tactical gear in Portland beating protestors and deploying tear gas spread, the DoD has been eager to clarify -- these are not military personnel.
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"I can say unequivocally there are no Department of Defense assets that are deployed to or are pending deployment or are looking to deploy to Portland at this time,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in July in response to the confusion.
He added that then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had "expressed his concern" and "interest" in the issue.
"We want a system where people can tell the difference," he added.
The military is consistently polled as the most trusted public institution in America -- law enforcement officers acting inappropriately while wearing what appear to be military-style uniforms could threaten that reputation among a civilian population largely unaware of how to differentiate between various government agencies, members of Congress said.
“We find it particularly troubling that in Portland, many of these federal officers have apparently been patrolling the streets in unmarked vehicles and arresting protestors off the street – in some cases without probable cause and without reading their Miranda rights – all while donning what appears to be military uniforms," reads a July letter signed by Reps. Adam Smith, D-Wash., Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., and Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
"These alarming actions beg a number of serious questions," the letter continued. "Was it the intent of the Trump Administration to make it seem as though the U.S. military is being deployed to control a U.S. city? Are they completely ignorant about the optics of the situation?"
Some argued that, far from being ignorant, law enforcement agencies were aware of the trust the public generally places in the U.S. military -- and were exploiting it.
"Year after year studies have shown a vast majority of Americans trust U.S. soldiers above judges, TSA and police," Air Force veteran and political strategist Pam Campos-Palma said in a Tweet in July. "The police and right-wing militias cosplaying with military uniforms is a strategic, psychological choice exploiting 'thank you for your service.'"
Weeks after the DoD expressed its concern, the Department of Homeland Security announced that federal agents in Portland would no longer be wearing military-style uniforms.
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The first week of August, Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli explained that those agents in Portland seen wearing multicam uniforms came from Customs and Border Protection -- they were wearing what they came with.
"That was CBP officers whose normal duty stations are along the border, and they came with what they had," Cuccinelli told Congress during an August hearing. "Now we have moved as quickly as we could to procure for them what you think of as the solid green CBP uniform."
Now, not just in Portland but across the country, federal military and civilian law enforcement personnel involved in the federal government's response to a "civil disturbance" will be legally required to wear visible identification of themselves and the name of the government agency employing them. The provision was included in the 2020 NDAA which passed into law last week despite a veto from President Donald Trump.
“Federal officers who police constitutionally-protected peaceful protests must be accountable to the people they serve, and that means officers must be identified," Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said in a statement in December when the House included the provision in its version of the NDAA in December. "Any community which is patrolled by armed officers is entitled to know who they are, who gives them orders, and what their use of force guidelines are."