Over the last few years, the United States has experienced the overbearing sense of a more powerful police force. The Citizens are concerned if providing the law enforcement field with more power to aid in the decrease of crime in rural and heavily populated cities, are doing more harm and increasing paranoia rather than helping decrease it. The United States is in the midst of the topic of if there are dangers with the militarization of police.
The main concern for the increasing militarization of law enforcement is the increasing spending towards these agencies. Since September 11th 2001, the Federal Government have spent billions of dollars in the modern and more military-grade equipment for state and local police departments(Ackerman). …show more content…
Police work can dangerously escalate situations that that have never needed violence(ACLU). There are many situations that have never “needed” violence, but with the advancements and spreading of more disobedient citizens who do not take the authority of the law enforcement agencies seriously have caused many of these “non-hostile” situations, a more cause for concern. The overwhelming majority of SWAT deployments are to serve search warrants, a scenario for which SWAT were not created nor intended and the majority of those drug search warrants are served to the people of color(McCabe). When a search warrant is issued to a civilian, the law enforcement agencies have to take the precaution that the civilian may be armed no matter the situation. SWAT teams have more training hours for these kinds of presumptions, they are issued more body protection than standard officers, which give the SWAT teams the advantage. The prejudice that SWAT teams and officers are issuing more search warrants for drug items and weaponry is an absurd conclusion that cannot be proven without sufficient evidence. Every officer must take the precaution that every citizen no matter the background, has the ability to be armed and dangerous to the civilians and officers around them.
The militarization of police is a very controversial topic
The main concern for the increasing militarization of law enforcement is the increasing spending towards these agencies. Since September 11th 2001, the Federal Government have spent billions of dollars in the modern and more military-grade equipment for state and local police departments(Ackerman). …show more content…
Police work can dangerously escalate situations that that have never needed violence(ACLU). There are many situations that have never “needed” violence, but with the advancements and spreading of more disobedient citizens who do not take the authority of the law enforcement agencies seriously have caused many of these “non-hostile” situations, a more cause for concern. The overwhelming majority of SWAT deployments are to serve search warrants, a scenario for which SWAT were not created nor intended and the majority of those drug search warrants are served to the people of color(McCabe). When a search warrant is issued to a civilian, the law enforcement agencies have to take the precaution that the civilian may be armed no matter the situation. SWAT teams have more training hours for these kinds of presumptions, they are issued more body protection than standard officers, which give the SWAT teams the advantage. The prejudice that SWAT teams and officers are issuing more search warrants for drug items and weaponry is an absurd conclusion that cannot be proven without sufficient evidence. Every officer must take the precaution that every citizen no matter the background, has the ability to be armed and dangerous to the civilians and officers around them.
The militarization of police is a very controversial topic