The United States Police Force

The militarization of the police is becoming more and more prevalent issue in our society. There are positives and negatives to this issue, but in my opinion it is a negative occurrence. Excessive use of force further divides police and community, which eventually may lead to severe consequences that may be irreparable.

In the film, Do Not Resist, Craig Atkinson illustrates the use of military weapons being issued to police; in addition, the differences of “Warrior” and “Guardian” mentalities in law enforcement. A warrior mentality, as described in Atkinson’s film, is referred to the mental tendencies of soldiers, focusing more on protection. Warrior mentality in officers is used to combat extreme situations, like terrorists attacks or hostage situations. On the other hand, guardian mentalities are focused more on serving the community more than protecting. Law enforcement officers have both the warrior and guardian concepts, some officers have more warrior than guardian while others have guardian more than warrior. It is important to understand the difference between the mentalities. To understand we see which communities have higher crime rates than others and see the kind of funds spent on weaponizing police. With those factors one can deduce what law enforcement stations have the ‘warrior’ persona. At what point do we say “enough is enough”, and take away big brother’s toys? As a nation, we’re only strong united. As the great JFK so powerfully said during the Civil War, “United we stand, divided we fall.” Our division of law enforcers, people of color, political affiliation, and other factors will be this society's inevitable downfall. Today’s society’s annihilation is inevitable because we do not have the proper leaders to guide this nation into prosperity.

Law Enforcement officers have one of the most critical jobs in the United States. Their lives are always on the line and they are of high regards. This means they cannot fail! The results of their jobs do not only depend on their actions but also on the people. What this means is the community has a huge role when it comes to solving crime. Though many people may not believe it, they are the key to a successful crime prevention community. The people of the United States don’t really understand both the positive and negative effects that community policing actually brings. Some may say it is very dangerous based on their experiences. Others may say it’s the best way to do away with crime. Today the two will be compared and put to test by true officers serving our country. The facts will be stated and questions will be answered. Let’s take a look at what community policing is really all about!

Terrorism has always existed in American policing, and while the groups committing these acts have changed, their intentions have not. Their intentions being to cause maximum fear and scare those who they target into doing and following their ideology. In the 1970’s and 1980’s in America, the main terrorist groups were associated with the environmental movement and race based groups, while other parts of the world were dealing with Islamic extremists, were committing terrorist acts across the Middle East without much intervention from the United States. In fact the group Al-Qaeda, who attacked the World Trade Centers in 1993 and 2001, found its roots in the 1980’s fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan with weapons supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency. While the U.S. Federal Law Enforcement agencies knew of these groups, they underestimated the capabilities of lone wolf, small cell, and whole terrorist organizations. This was due to the fact that the Federal Law Enforcement agencies top priority was general crime such as organized crimes and white-collar crime.

Furthermore, there are many problems associated with militarizing our police that we need to recognize and address. Police militarization started with the intent of combating terrorism but has grown to unnecessary uses and applications. Instead, we see too much force and tension applied to minor operations and a lot of misuse of power while handling citizens, primarily people of color. It does not help that policemen’s

This research project is an analysis of six scenarios. The scenarios are as follows: History and rolls of law enforcement in society, Levels of jurisdiction, Distinction among the multiple functions of Law enforcement agencies, Analysis of Historical events that have shaped modern policing practices, Ethical and professional behavior in the workplace, and Evaluation of how knowledge, skills, and attitude learned in this course apply to your chosen career. There will also be a summary of reactions on Ethical and professional behavior in the work place. Included in the second section, there will be six scenarios. The responses will incorporate knowledge of

In looking for answers as to why police brutality is such a big issue today, we see that the problem lies in past actions that were not dealt properly. First, Prohibition reduced respect for authority and law enforcement, as the police committed various unconstitutional acts. Next, the War on Drugs and the War on Terror changed the image of law enforcement from that of a peacekeeper to that of a domestic soldier. As a result of this inaction, American society finds itself in a crisis situation, where people cannot trust the police and where police are struggling to regain credibility with the American population.

The ACLU report examine the excessive force between the citizen and stated highlighted that there has been an “increase militarization of police departments throughout the US since the war on drugs” (Rucke 2014), they also stated that the police new form of militarizing has increasingly treated the American people like they are the enemy of the state. Furthermore, there are other who agree with the militarization of the police. Past events has cause others to believe that there need to be balance between militarizing and community policing.

The Warrior Cop Project Organization represents law enforcement officers. Our ultimate goal is public awareness and education on the origins, the present, and the future of militarization of police and the safety of all American police officers. This paper examines the militarization of the American police forces as it pertains to the increased equipment and training needed by police to remain safe while effectively doing their required jobs. Militarization of police: it is more than just equipment. Our organization is pro-militarization of the police. Our police officers must be allowed to protect themselves when threatened. These threats are manifested on

The social issue that is most important to fix is separating the police from militarization in the U.S. Before the ‘‘War on Drugs’’ police are meant to keep citizen safe, detect and prevent crime and bring public order. Now after the ‘‘War on Drugs’’ was announced, President Ronald Reagan passed the federal law that police cooperate with military and use military equipment as justification on the war on drugs. As time pass in modern times we still see police using military equipment and vehicles around the street. This became an issue to many people, as police carry military possession in their hands. These are my reason why police and military should be separated. My first reason is that police are meant for civil order and keeping the peace.

One way to limit policy brutality from occurring is to restrict the flow of military equipment to police departments. Many believe that the access police departments have on military guns and personnel carriers creates a militarized culture that promotes violence and unnecessary force. In the past 8 years alone the Defense Department has “distributed more than $1.5 billion worth of surplus equipment”, which many see as unnecessary. The line between the defense department and local enforcement agencies is blurred where it should not be; confiscating high-caliber weapons, grenade launchers, armed drones, and other military equipment may be the solution to repress police violence.

Throughout its’ history, the United States of America has had a military branch in order to protect the country from foreign enemies, dating back all the way to the Revolutionary War when the brave young Colonies declared independence from Great Britain. However, the first official domestic defense did not come until almost one hundred years later when the city of Boston established the first official American police force in 1838, followed by New York City in 1845 (Potter 1). Soon major cities all over the country followed in the footsteps of Boston and New York City. Police forces were seen as a positive presence in the United States when they were established; enforcing justice against the unjust. Law enforcement in the United States has been scrutinized from the beginning of its’ creation due to bad apples within police forces across the nation. The bad apples unfortunately were corrupting an organization that was supposed to be serving and protecting the people of the United States for approximately a couple hundred years. Fortunately, the evil and undue police within departments across the country were heavily outnumbered by the good cops in this country. The same is true today, but in recent history police brutality has been a widespread issue in the United States. Although police corruption and brutality is present in America today, the need for police is more apparent now than ever because police forces across the country as a whole are keeping the peace and are

Many different types of police agencies exist in the United States of America. Each and every police agencies varies from small town police departments to larger federal agencies. The functions of the police agencies usually depend on the type of organization, its size, its mission, and jurisdiction. When selecting an agency that is suitable for you and your interests several things should be considered.

Small town Holdrege, Nebraska is where I decided to look a little further into law enforcement on the State level. There are quite a few State Troopers in this area, or it seems to be that way anyways. I contacted Sargent John Wagner for an interview. I have to say these men/women in uniform are slightly intimidating. I’m not sure if it is the uniform, or the fact I grew up thinking these officers of the law are just that scary. I guess we shall see once we begin the interview.

The psychologist serves a great purpose in the law enforcement as well. The police psychologists provide services that are used to counter police use of excessive force. The psychologists are there to characterize the types of officers who are known to abuse force and to recommend psychology-based intervention that could help police managers reduce cases of excessive force. Some think that the police departments should rely mostly on pre employment screening to identify violence-prone candidates.