The use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement is a common example of the arming of the police force. (Balko, 2006). Tear gas, grenades, guarded people movers, rifles, ammunition, guns, sniper rifles, and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) squads are a few of the weapons that have been used. The militarization of law enforcement has been linked to intelligence agencies that collect data on the public for security reasons. These agencies are occasionally well-known for their forceful behavior. The militarization of law enforcement has been effectively recognized by Professor Peter Kraska as "the method where undercover police officers increasingly draw from and design themselves around them, the laws of militarism, and the military model. The militarization of law enforcement in the British literature clearly illustrates that global concerns raised and awareness often play a great role in measuring its appeal (Jefferson, 1990; Reiner, 1992). This issue commonly raised includes beliefs and values, and ethical principles. Many people, we see this even among scholars, the paramilitary model represents challenges against, discipline, control, competence, and patriotism. Many say that Para militarization often stands for tyranny and lack of voice for the citizens, which is seen through violence, abuse of human rights and war crimes. we see this ideology which often sees social challenges as actually been best-handled through brutal and aggressive means (Kraska and Cubellis, 1997:627).
The government officials role include keeping us safe from terrorist attacks, which favor towards the idea of militarism which is vital for both micro and macro security threats this is essential for administering justice and solving problems (Christie ,2000). The law enforcement officer also processes crime, combat terrorists and other fights against. This issues often require the use of militarization activities to protect citizens against this danger. An example of this is seen in the recent Hurricane which occurred in the United States, (Hurricane Katrina). The government’s immediate response to this catastrophe was so different than what it did for previous disasters which occurred in the last 50 years. This shows that there is a decline of the social safety and that the increase in the number of militarized and governance body centers only around factors relating to crime and security, the major objective of the Department of Homeland Security (and its newly subsumed Federal Emergency Management Agency) was not centered for humanitarian purposes, but we see instead there is a rise of a security forces operation which included police squads, private soldiers, and the National Guards in the organization (Charlie, 2007). By this account, the fixation on crime and insecurity and the Para militarization of officers has caused delays and has further complicated the human relief effort enormously. We see that the impact that this will have on the future of police militarization is that it will lead to the war on terrorism, thereby providing a strong moral justification for the existence of all this PPUs, which is not why the organization was formed in the first place, which is training for rare terrorist and hostage incidents. While I would advocate for this development I think in future we will still be left with the issues of regular police.
The number of SWAT teams has considerably increased since the SWAT team formation they were formed in the early 1960s and in the 90s about 70% of the police departments in the USA served jurisdictions of about 50,000 people. They have Multiplied considerably since they were founded in the 1960s. By the late 1990s, about 89% of police departments in the United States were serving jurisdictions of 50,000 or more people, and we also see that 80% of civilians reported to having a SWAT team. The growth of SWAT teams has also exponentially increased in local jurisdictions this has raised queries about whether they have the supplies needed to efficiently train the enforcement officers.
Countries often notice that the militarizing of police officers often attract protests from the community members we see this in America. from the early 1970s where the military police have often fired at protesters during demonstrations using heavy ammunitions which are covered by bullets. Scholars often claim that the war against drugs has increasingly led to the rise of the militarization of the police this has then created a crisis which has led to the government to increase the law enforcement teams to cope with the crisis. the government has also fostered interactions between the military and law enforcement teams as they steer joint acts in the "wars." We see that improvement in technology has decreased the cost for law enforcement officers to adopt the military technology.
We also see that the Technology that was used by the military e.g facial recognition systems and satellite monitoring can now be also used by law enforcement. Tear gas was first developed to combat riots in the USA in early 1919, it was the method used most commonly to disperse demonstrators also in the early 2000s. The use of tear gas as a weapon against protesters has raised protests among international bodies such as the united nations who view the weapon as harsh towards humanity.; however, we see that teargas is permitted for noncombat situations e.g dispersing protesters and we also see that teargas in African countries is commonly used to remove hawkers from the town streets this means that in some cases teargas is a safe method to disperse crowds without actually combating using other methods such as guns.
Members of the community often raise concerns about the militarization of police officers, we also see this through political activists and leaders have continually voiced their disregard for the practice. This is also seen among unions such as the American Civil Liberties Union who have also condemned the practice. The governing leaders of the Police force have openly been in favor of arming enforcement officers with ammunition on the ground that it often protects the officers on duty and enhances their security and that it also protects the citizens. [Dunlap,2001] However, in 2017 research conducted showed that police officers who received military ammunitions were most likely to encounter violent and aggressive scenarios with the public, despite local crime rates reported.
Benefits
The benefits of police militarization have proved to be successful in some scenarios e.g. the war in Afghanistan and Iraq which were invaded in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The security work involved common patrol operations, door-to-door hunts (which included no-knock raids), and arrest of law offenders. use of force policies is also much more similar to police work than for warfare activities. questions raised include about the degree in which military personnel often trained for common crooks against terrorists. that has shown that when militarization if done correctly often produces positive results, research conducted shows terrorist crimes have reduced considerably by a large margin.
Another benefit that is seen is that the modern law enforcement teams cannot function in their day to day activities which is security by just relying on guns, teargas and tasers alone and so militarization of police officers is seen as beneficial to fight crimes and also for security purposes we see this e.g in Iraq where bombs and other heavy types of machinery were been used by the terrorists so it is always beneficial that the police teams protect themselves adequately and efficiently to combat wars by arming the police officers.
it is also often seen effective way to minimize criminal behavior the majority of countries in Europe often arm police officers, this lessens criminal activities in areas. even though we see that sometimes criminals often operate in almost every jurisdiction. Given this, a failure to arm the police officers often gives criminals the strong advantage.
Another advantage is that it boosts companies who manufacture ammunition and army types of equipment. We see that this has given the military contractors a great market this trend towards militarization has led to the growth of military products in the market and offers variety to the industry. We see industries such as Lockheed Martin and Blackhawk Industries are profiting by selling their products to agencies flush with Department of Homeland Security grants. In addition to the selling of products and equipment’s, contractors also do sponsorship deals and events for military teams, such as Urban Shield, which is a major arms body which has attracted worldwide attention from political leaders and unions in recent years. The teams, which include the police agencies, held sponsorship deals in different states last year, this was held in order to train officers and also for promotion purposes
Demerits
The methods used by the PPUs can be crude especially during investigations which include drugs. A surprise ‘entry’ into private homes creates conditions that often places the individuals and police officers in a volatile position necessitating extraordinary measures. These raids are often done through information gotten by informants. The methods used often include conducting searches which are commonly done in predawn hours, the attires often set for this activities often include black military attires, hoods, and helmets; a quick entry into the homes is done using specialized battering rams or explosives; they can also often occasionally use grenades that are specifically designed to temporarily cause confusion the house occupants; which is then followed by a room-to-room search of the entire house where all occupants are expected to abide with PPUs vital demands to get into the disposed positions which can allow handcuffing of all occupants. If citizens do not comply immediately more extreme measures can then be taken these situations may often involve the use of weaponry. the police then aggressively do search the entire residence. Research shows that complaints are commonly received where citizens have been killed under questionable conditions. Same tactics used successfully in Afghanistan, Iraq
The militarization of police officers sometimes raises security concerns within the community. When faced with situations where police officers are heavily armed using ammunition, grenades it is known that there is often a large likelihood that innocent victims may suffer as a result. Swat teams when they do house raids without warning may cause people to think that there is an ongoing burglary which could turn fatal there have been several reports of innocent civilians’ dead and innocent victims being injured as a result of this raids occurring. Some of these cases have also gone unreported as a result.
Children are often affected we see those police officers raided homes and housing apartments do that without thinking of the children or whether the kids are home. We also see cases where children are caught up in a crossfire and cases like this may result in death or injury and this may prove horrific or may even prove fatal as a result. Police officers have proven fully capable of violently subduing protesters without any military grade weapons.so it is important that more peaceful ways of handling conflicts should be resorted to than use weapons. We also see that due to the use of weapons by the military they can easily fall into the wrong hands as a result and this may not be good for the community e.g. children using the weapons while they are thinking that the weapons are toys they may also fall into the wrong hands e.g. robbers and school children so in short, this may cause easy accessibility to ammunition. Use of weapons, as a result, may cause extrajudicial killings we see this every day where innocent victims get shot or killed during raids.
We also see that nowadays that there is no longer middle ground between community watch and the military. Concerns have also been raised that military-style helmets often limit vision while the officers fire into protesters so this may cause extrajudicial killings (Charles J, 2001). Sometimes using swat teams may prove unnecessary. It has been noted that when swat teams are deployed in cases where there are not needed e.g. looking for drugs without proper research of the area and whether the drugs are even in the house in cases like this militarized teams of police is not useful/and this is also not the reason for swat team formation.
Furthermore, even when SWAT teams think there are weapons, they are often wrong. The ACLU report shows that in the cases where police thought weapons would be there, they were right only a third of the time. Routinely arming the police causes a spiral of violence. Where the police are not routinely armed, a proportion of criminals will not arm themselves (since, for example, armed robbery often carries a higher sentence than robbery). Once the police are armed, criminals who do not match their capability operate at a strong disadvantage. Therefore, when the police become routinely armed, the criminal world fully arms itself in response.
The mere fact of increased weapons possession (by both police and criminals) will in itself result in higher use since, in circumstances where arms may not be currently used (e.g. a police chase), either side carrying weapons will mean that they consider a shooting option which they did not formerly possess. This effectively reduces the options currently available, for example, the police are less likely to use less harmful alternatives such as “stun guns”, CS spray, negotiation, etc.
we see that the militarization of police officers offers some benefits to the community and that it also has weaknesses, which should be further discussed and improved accordingly so that it can beneficial to the government as well as the masses.
Work cited
Balko, Radley. 2006. Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America,
White Paper by the Cato Institute (www.cato.org/pub display.php?pub id=6476).
Christie, Nils. 2000. Crime Control as Industry: Towards Gulags, Western Style,
Routledge: New York. Garland, David. 2001. The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Deitch,
Charlie. 2007. ‘‘Military Police.’’ Pittsburgh City Paper 1–3. DeMichelle,
Matthew and Kraska, Peter.2001. ‘‘Community Policing in Battle Garb:
A Paradox or Coherent Strategy?’’. Dunlap, Charles J. 2001. ‘‘The Thick Green Line:
