Armed and Dangerous: Militarizing America’s police force

By Marjorie R. Esman
Guest Columnist

In predominantly poor and ethnic communities across the U.S., it is becoming more common for local police agencies to deploy SWAT teams using high powered weaponry and paramilitary tactics to issue simple search warrants for things like suspicion of drugs or weapons possession. These surprise searches often occur in the middle of the night with little regard for who is present, including children, the disabled, pregnant women or the elderly. Heavily armed officers may force their way into homes using battering rams to break down doors and crash windows. They use explosive devices like flash grenades and employ aggressive and unnecessarily violent tactics that increase the risk of damage to property, bodily injury, even death. Many local police departments are equipped with military devices such as Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Vehicles. These metal fortresses, built for combat to withstand armor-piercing roadside bombs in foreign countries, are now on street patrol in many U.S. communities. Growing access to this military might coupled with a “them versus us” mentality that is endemic in many local police departments adds up to American policing that, “has become unnecessarily and dangerously militarized,” according to a report by the ACLU’s national office, published this year. War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing examined the use of SWAT teams by state and local law enforcement agencies.

Armed and Dangerous

So, just who is arming America’s police force? The federal government, which is sourcing local police departments with surplus military equipment originally intended for war. Through grant programs or as direct gifts, federal programs like the Pentagon’s 1033 program provide local police forces with free military equipment that they stockpile and use against their own communities, including people who are not dangerous, pose no threat and are not the enemy. The Pentagon estimates that approximately $450 million in surplus equipment was transferred through federal programs to local law enforcement agencies in 2013. Small towns across the country receive military equipment that they justify by citing the need for prevention, protection response and recovery activities pertaining to weapons of mass destruction and the threat of terrorism. And while the use of SWAT teams is supposed to be a rare response to emergency situations such as hostage-taking, law enforcement now routinely uses these drastic techniques for simple searches for drug possession.

The Contradiction

The irony behind the increasing use of military equipment for routine policing is that at the national level meaningful criminal justice reform is finally beginning to gain traction. Outdated and unfair drug laws, three strike laws and minimum sentencing requirements are being reviewed and reconsidered to help ease overcrowding in our jails and give many people locked up for minor offenses another chance. While the Attorney General wants a review of excessive sentences for drug offenders, local police are using military techniques and equipment against those same individuals.

Not Enough Oversight

Like so many other areas of the criminal justice system, consistent federal oversight of these programs has fallen through the cracks. On the heels of other recent incidents of excessive police force and after a review of federal acquisition programs, the President has issued an executive order calling for increased oversight. Considerations include special training for local departments and the creation of guidelines for the use of force, and even filing after reports for federally provided equipment that has been involved in a significant incident. There would be no need for justification if if police forces didn’t have this equipment in the first place. Our streets are not war zones and our law enforcement officers are not soldiers. We need law enforcement to recognize that they are supposed to be peace agents who promised to protect and serve. The use of military machinery and tactics for simple searches and other minor incidents is unnecessary and wrong. The federal government must work to create systemic criminal justice reform that provides oversight and direction for its programs so that law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve develop trust and become united in the common goal of creating neighborhoods where everyone’s public safety is important.

This article originally published in the December 15, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.