Sep 16, 2014 11:58 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Amid controversy that certain police forces are increasingly militarizing, a new report has found an increase in military-grade weapons distributed to university police.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, more than 60 U.S. colleges and universities have M16 rifles and at least 14 have M14s for use by their police. They are reportedly obtaining such equipment through the U.S. Defense Department's 1033 program, which distributes surplus items to local agencies.

Muckrock, a Freedom of Information Act watchdog website, reported that more than 100 college or university police departments have obtained military-grade equipment from the Defense Department. Such equipment includes the aforementioned rifles, protective gear and explosive-resistant vehicles such as Humvees.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) reportedly obtained a grenade launcher that the school's police department altered to shoot canisters of tear gas. UCF stressed that it has not left "the armory in several years."

"Orlando was one of the host cities for the 1994 World Cup. The games took place at the Citrus Bowl, where our football team used to play before the on-campus stadium opened," Chad Binette, a UCF spokesman, told the Huffington Post. "UCF Police inherited the modified launcher around that time for security and crowd-control purposes, and at one time the launcher was used for training."

At a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) recommended the 1033 program be revised. As the person who leads the subcommittee's oversight, McCaskill said officers of the local police departments that receive these pieces of equipment should undergo extensive training.

"If we're gonna give you money, we're going to make you jump through a few hoops first," she said at the hearing, according to the Chronicle.

University of Maryland (UMD) Police Chief David Mitchell told the HP what matters the most is how a school handles the matter of its police officers having access to military-grade equipment. For example, he said his department's policy is to be transparent and that he has three Humvees, 50 M16s, two M14s and 16 shotguns. He also said the 1033 program helped the school save thousands of dollars on them as well.

Mitchell teaches a class at UMD on police administration and said the military equipment is only accessible to his officers to deal with an active shooter on campus.

"After what we saw in Ferguson, people are concerned about police militarization," he told the HP. "I think the question should be how do they use and account for [the military equipment], how transparent are they that they have it, and do they record and document use?

"How prepared are you for something like Virginia Tech or Columbine?"

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