Militarization Of Police Force Essay

People’s perspective of police officers has changed over time for many reasons, but today’s society is losing their faith in the American police force. Communities and police officers used to work closely together instead of people fearing police officers. One main reason for people’s perspective on police officers changing is police brutality and the use of excessive force. By no longer having a militarized police force, training police officers better, and increasing new police technologies would help decrease police brutality restoring faith back into the police force. Over the years, the police force has adapted to more of a militarized police force. The police force was designed to serve and protect citizens, but many people feel like that is no longer the case. Police officers are being trained with military tactics and are also becoming more equipped with certain military gear, which is extremely unnecessary. With police forces being militarized, more power is being given to police unions who are in charge of law enforcement and making decisions (Laird). This is important because with police officers practicing military tactics, excessive force and police brutality are more likely to happen. Police …show more content…
By treating people as civilians, police officers are more likely to use force in situations. This is because of the military tactics taught which is meant for civilians, not our own people. Militarism of police forces has made police officers feel use of force is okay to de-escalate situations because they are viewing people in their own country as civilians. Police officers should be using force only when it is necessary, which should only be in a small number of situations. This idea makes police officers forget that we are all one nation and should be working together, which is why it is important to eliminate the militarization of police