The militarization of the police involves the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers. This includes the use of armoured personnel carriers, assault rifles, machine guns, stun grenades,[9][10] grenade launchers,[11] sniper rifles, special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams. [12] [13] The militarization of law enforcement is also associated with intelligence-type intelligence gathering targeting the public and political activists,[14][15] and a more aggressive style of law enforcement. [16] [17] Criminal law professor Peter Kraska has defined the militarization of law enforcement as “the process in which civilian police increasingly draw on and orient themselves on the principles of militarism and the military model.” [18] In summary, the practice of aggressive preventive policing reflects cultural militarization, as it is based on a view of minority groups as part of the population most likely to pose a threat against which police must protect society. It aims to prevent crime by focusing police attention more intensely on racial and ethnic minorities, on the basis that this is likely to identify criminals who should be kept off the streets. This includes minority communities as adversaries, whose members should be treated as suspects rather than fellow citizens. To the extent that police perceptions of personal danger are implicitly shaped by these assumptions, more frequent interaction between police and suspects also carries the risk of increased use of police force. As discussed in the next section, the trend of increasing numbers of armed patrol officers may increase the risk of this violence being fatal. This article draws on empirical research on policing in America in recent years to describe how policing in some minority communities blurs the line between police and military. Work in this area includes research on the material and cultural dimensions of militarization. These studies help clarify that concerns about police militarization reflect not only concerns about the physical impact of militarization, but also deeper concerns about distinguishing between different state actors empowered to use force in different ways to ensure the safety of citizens in a liberal democracy.
Material and cultural militarization has a symbolic dimension that goes to the heart of the relationship between the state and its citizens. The focus on this dimension draws attention to how police practices and equipment are perceived by communities. In its symbolic dimension, militarization puts violence in the foreground rather than in the background, thus reversing a basic assumption about the police in a liberal democracy. Even though aggressive preventive policing has contributed to a drop in crime, Zimring notes that “aggressiveness in policing is an expensive strategy because it places real disadvantages on very poor minorities who can least afford additional disabilities.” 106 We need to consider what those costs are. Jeffrey Fagan and colleagues found the damage of “stigma and internalized psychological costs” to the 95% of people who are innocent at these stops.107 The Epp, Maynard-Moody, and Haider-Markel study of traffic stops states that “every stop justified by a minor infraction, every curious question, every light in a passenger compartment, Every request for a search permit, Every search and handcuff of a person only to release them later causes harm. 108 Similarly, the Department of Justice`s 2015 report on the Ferguson Police Department found that African-American residents were “described, disparaged, incredulous and treated with little regard for their legal rights.” 109 A common way scientists measure militarization is the value of military equipment acquired from police services. For example, a study by Vincenzo Bove and Evelina Gavrilova analyzed the transfer of equipment to 8,000 local police departments at the district level from 2006 to 2012,216 found that a 10% increase in the value of military equipment purchased resulted in a decrease in the number of crimes of 5.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. These include decreases in robberies, robberies, burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts. The authors found a negligible effect on homicide.
In addition, the receipt of military equipment did not affect the number of calls received by the police, the number of police officers attacked or injured in the line of duty, or the number of offenders killed by the police. Structural organization is another process of militarization. Before World War II (1939-1945), after major conflicts, the United States experienced a reduction in armed forces after the war, reflecting American distrust of large standing armies. After World War II, not only was the army maintained, but the National Security Law of 1947 restructured civilian and military command structures and created the Ministry of Defense and the National Security Council. The Act also created for the first time permanent intelligence structures (CIA et al.) within the U.S. government, reflecting the civilian government`s perception that previously military intelligence information should be integrated into the civil registry structure. The second meeting of the Round Table was held in Czechoslovakia in 1990 and in Istanbul the following year, where the group expressed concern about “the rapid increase in the concentration, homogenization, commercialization and militarization of national and world crops”. The media, they said, “blends into a centrally produced symbolic and cultural environment” that “permeates every home in an ever-increasing number of countries.” The media, they added, serves “marketing strategies and government priorities that are increasingly beyond the reach of democratic politics.” Another way women can support militarization is by working in the defense industry. During both world wars, there was a huge influx of women into munitions factories. Recruitment propaganda called for women to do ammunition work previously done by men. A British recruitment poster, for example, proclaimed: “These women are doing their part: learning how to make ammunition.” According to Angela Woollacott, about one million British women worked in munitions factories during the First World War, making rifles, grenades, explosives and airplanes.
Women munitions manufacturers of both world wars achieved greater economic independence than before, and many expressed pride in contributing to the war effort. The use of a war metaphor in policing – whether in the war on drugs or in the war on terror – is a crucial element of cultural militarization that can have a significant impact on how police officers perceive their work and those they meet on duty. The following section describes how various police practices that do not involve the use of lethal force may nevertheless reflect a military orientation. A recent paper published by Brown University researcher Jessica Katzenstein notes that while militarization has always been a feature of U.S. law enforcement — beginning with militarized slave patrols and colonial militias — the U.S. response to 9/11 has greatly exacerbated police militarization. While some military attributes, such as discipline and a clear chain of command, can help improve accountability and professionalism in law enforcement, militarization also blurs the lines between the military and law enforcement in ways that can increase the risk of harm to civilians.