Militarization Of Community Policing
In light of the ever increasing tension between police and it citizens caused by excessive police force, I wanted to explore the idea of the militarization of our nations’ police force and the impact it has had on trust of the citizens it is sworn to protect and serve. I also aim to explore how we begin the demilitarization of these forces and start to focus more on serving the public.
Policing in the United States followed in the footsteps of England’s community policing model. “The “watch” system was composed of community volunteers whose primary duty was to warn of impending danger. Boston created a night watch in 1636, New York in 1658 and Philadelphia in 1700.” (Potter, 2013) These volunteers were unpaid and fairly unreliable; it was …show more content…
You would expect a little soul searching as a nation. To make matters even worse, all I ever hear candidates talk about is how we need to stand behind our “men and women in law enforcement”. I can’t recall once hearing a candidate talk about demilitarizing our police. Was it always this bad? “While a majority of Americans remain confident in the police, 52% currently express "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in that institution, tying the low in Gallup's 22-year trend.” (Jones, …show more content…
I think it’s important to say that there are legitimate uses for some to the military equipment police department have acquired and some of the military tactics they are trained in. However, there has been a disturbing increase in the amount of innocent people killed or injured in these no knock, military style assaults. There are also a number of stories regarding SWAT teams performing simple execution of search warrants in drug cases. There are cases where the individual is still innocent until proven guilty. We’ve all heard the saying “when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. My concern is that when you dress up looking like you are going into battle to serve a search warrant, you may be more apt to look for trouble rather than to react to trouble.
Task Force on 21st Century Policing – On December of 2014, the President issued and Executive order appointing an 11 member task force to handle serious issues between communities and law enforcement. One of the recommendations was that police diversity should match the communities in which they serve. Building Trust- the Task Force on 21st Century Policing guidebook has recommendations on how to improve
Policing in the United States followed in the footsteps of England’s community policing model. “The “watch” system was composed of community volunteers whose primary duty was to warn of impending danger. Boston created a night watch in 1636, New York in 1658 and Philadelphia in 1700.” (Potter, 2013) These volunteers were unpaid and fairly unreliable; it was …show more content…
You would expect a little soul searching as a nation. To make matters even worse, all I ever hear candidates talk about is how we need to stand behind our “men and women in law enforcement”. I can’t recall once hearing a candidate talk about demilitarizing our police. Was it always this bad? “While a majority of Americans remain confident in the police, 52% currently express "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in that institution, tying the low in Gallup's 22-year trend.” (Jones, …show more content…
I think it’s important to say that there are legitimate uses for some to the military equipment police department have acquired and some of the military tactics they are trained in. However, there has been a disturbing increase in the amount of innocent people killed or injured in these no knock, military style assaults. There are also a number of stories regarding SWAT teams performing simple execution of search warrants in drug cases. There are cases where the individual is still innocent until proven guilty. We’ve all heard the saying “when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. My concern is that when you dress up looking like you are going into battle to serve a search warrant, you may be more apt to look for trouble rather than to react to trouble.
Task Force on 21st Century Policing – On December of 2014, the President issued and Executive order appointing an 11 member task force to handle serious issues between communities and law enforcement. One of the recommendations was that police diversity should match the communities in which they serve. Building Trust- the Task Force on 21st Century Policing guidebook has recommendations on how to improve