Police Militarization and Public Safety

By Kira Webster

In 2006, the White House’s National Strategy for Combating Terrorism announced that they had “broken old orthodoxies that once confined our counterterrorism efforts primarily to the criminal justice domain.” It was a way to combat terrorism in America, as well as combat the long-waging War on Drugs, and implement a soldier mentality to police officers. However, a recent study performed by Princeton University professor Jonathon Mummulo found that U.S. police militarization leads to higher levels of violence in communities, distrust in law enforcement, and discrimination. After twelve years, it’s one of the earliest studies in this line of research because there is little information on police reform.

The core of this issue lies in the fact that police behavior is rarely – if ever – recorded accurately. Information from agencies are normally purged between five to ten years, and even before that time, are hardly ever shared publicly. The conclusions he arrived at were based on one state (Maryland), which had passed a law in 2009 after a mayor and his wife were interrogated, and their dogs shot and killed during a botched SWAT raid. The two had been reportedly tied to drug trafficking, but nothing was found in the house that evening. Facing public outrage, uniform collection of data across the state was mandated (but, Mummulo points out this data was only collected for five years – the time it took for the political situation to blow over).

Before 9/11, a local officer usually carried a standard pump-action shotgun. The most sophisticated could have been a surplus M-16, which would have been reserved for the supervising officer’s vehicle. Now, it’s completely normal to see an officer with assault rifles. When returning from active duty in Iraq, a soldier named Arthur Rizer, saw a police officer at the Minneapolis airport with an M4 carbine assault rifle – the same one Rizer had used during his combat tour in Fallujah.

Now, there is even an enormous conference called Urban Shield, created to train first responders in times of critical action. Each group goes through 35 tactical scenarios in 48 hours with no breaks besides a possible catnap. Situations span from a terrorist seizing a ship, a “militant atheist extremist group” holding people hostage at a church and lining up an airline to try to bust a gun smuggler. The mission statement for Urban Shield is to “detect, prevent, investigate and respond to criminal and terrorist activity.” The Department of Homeland Security is the main financial contributor, but over a hundred other companies also donated up to $25,000 each. The point of these scenarios is not just to appropriately train first responders, it also gives Urban Shield’s sponsors a huge opportunity to sell their new equipment. FirstSpear, one of the contributors, was created by former soldiers to make body armor and bandoliers for U.S. soldiers, but here, they sold their products to cops. Marines have even come to get cops’ input for tactical situations. It shows the gravity of our militarized state when the strongest military in the world is taking advice from police officers.

Heavier influence on police militarization has also led to a prominent increase in SWAT teams. Originally only intended to be deployed in times of seriously violent emergencies, Mummalo found that 90 percent of SWAT raids were used to execute a search warrant, while 62 percent were used for drugs raids – but drugs were only found half of the time. Raids were also found more common in black communities.

In a survey conducted to 6,000 people about their feelings towards a highly militarized police force, most either replied that it gave the impression that were more crimes in that area, as well as showing affluence of those police agencies. Although, stunting affluence wouldn’t be so far from the truth. Since 2006, the Pentagon has sold $1.9 billion worth of equipment to law enforcement agencies, and DHS alone has awarded about $41 billion in grants since 2002. This year, DHS is set to give $1.6 billion to local police departments and state agencies. The money is marked for being used for counterterrorism and disaster preparedness. However, the equipment is also able to be used for any sort of law enforcement purpose. These include protests, executing home searches, and obtaining warrants. While Homeland Security dollars cannot be used to purchase firearms, police departments have the option of using funds from assets seized by criminal activity if the funds are directed toward drug enforcement. Any money, cars, and property seized can be sold in exchange for weapons. In 2012, the Washington Post found that forfeits generate a large sum of money for police departments – about $4.6 billion. Keep in mind that is all aside from taxpayer dollars.

The subtle evolution of viewing an officer as a soldier seems like a genuine effort to keep the public safe on the surface, but this mentality could be detrimental both financially (considering how much we spend towards our military) and for the cause of public safety. The fundamental differences between a police officer and a military soldier are important to distinguish. A cop’s mission is to “keep the peace.” As officers of law enforcement, they’re supposed to protect civil liberties of everyone in the country including the “bad guys.” In most situations they encounter, a person is innocent until proven guilty. Officers are also trained based on a complex legal system and should only resort to violence as a last resort.

A soldier, however, is trained to view two groups – an enemy and a non-enemy. Once an enemy is established, their mission is simple: kill the enemy and try not to kill the non-enemy. The Soldier’s Creed is “I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.” This is on a much more serious level than “keep the peace.” Arthur Rizer and Joseph Hartman from the Atlantic said it best that when police officers are trained, dressed, and armed like soldiers, they will start to act like soldiers. “And remember: a soldier’s main objective is to kill the enemy.”