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Rise Of The Warrior Cop

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Rise of the Warrior Cop, by Radley Balko, centers around police in the United States and how it has gone through militarization throughout the years. Militarization is a process in which the police departments take on tactics that are similar to the tactics used by the military. Police forces were initially made to make our environment a safer place to live in. In this book, Balko explains how that has changed. Practices of policing first began when people would get hired, unofficially, to keep slaves under control and catch them if they try to run away. These people were sometimes known as slave catchers. Soon it evolved into formal policing, allowing police to catch criminals and make the neighborhood safe. However, today it is not so much about catching criminals; it involves a lot of violence and Balko questions whether this is even constitutional. In his writing, Balko brings awareness to the horrible tactics police are using in today’s society and how we could fix it. To begin with, Balko talks about how our police forces have intensified over the years. He introduces trends that have been continuing on for a very long time. These trends include police becoming more violent and using way more force. This is especially seen in the SWAT team. The SWAT team was initially created because of the killings in Austin, “[it] marked the birth date of the modern police SWAT concept. Since that day, almost every police department in the United States has formed a special response

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