In 1996, a SWAT team in La Plata County dressed in black hoods and camouflage descended on a ranch owned by Samuel Heflin. They were looking for evidence -- a cowboy hat, shirt and a pack of cigarettes -- related to a bar brawl. On the way into Heflin’s home, police forced an eight-year-old and a 14-year-old to the ground at gunpoint. They then trained a laser-sighted assault weapon on Heflin’s four-year-old daughter as she ran screaming into the house. Upon asking to see a search warrant, Heflin was told by SWAT officers to shut up. Heflin was later acquitted of misdemeanor charges related to the bar brawl.
You usually only hear about raids and incidents that use militarized policing in big cities and incidents that are televised. These cases are only a small fraction of what actually happens around the country. For example, the militarized police in the episode of Ferguson, Missouri, got national attention. There are many other incidents like this all over the country; cities and small towns are receiving military equipment for their policing such as MRAPs, sniper rifles, fully automatic weapons, etc.
Police forces get this equipment because they want to rescue people in an emergency and make citizens feel safe and secure. But if the intention is to make people feel safe, demilitarizing the police would create more security and maintain liberty in this country.
The Fourth Amendment states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” In the incident described above, do the police obey the Fourth Amendment?
Militarizing our police forces is a waste of money, especially given how militarized police worsens public security. Heavily armed police officers using flash-bang grenades, automatic weapons and MRAPs naturally increases citizens’ fear. According to Radley Balko, the author of Rise of the Warrior Cop: “Police are supposed to relate to the community, not put on combat boots and assault the community.” Police officers and departments must both obey to the law and be firm in its enforcement. They should refrain from being swayed by public opinion and instead be concerned with promoting and doing what is always right.
The American Civil Liberties Union documented 53 cases of SWAT teams busting doors down with no warning. Seven of the cases documented civilians dying in the raids, and 46 people were injured. This sort of policing does not make citizens feel protected.
In fact, it has the opposite effect.
Militarized police increase anxiety among citizens. When you see police walking around with military-grade weapons and driving MRAPs down public streets, that doesn’t give the impression of a safe and secure place. Citizens are intimidated by the militarized equipment and think something dangerous is happening, when in reality the police are often on their way to search a house for drugs. There is a picture from Ferguson of a police officer decked out in military-grade armor on top of a black MRAP, looking through the scope of his sniper rifle pointed at a group of protesters. Police are not supposed to aim their weapons unless they are going to fire. There was not just one picture of police officers doing this.
People might believe that militarizing the police with the power and equipment they have will maximize the security and help protect liberties. But in the utilitarian perspective, Jeremy Bentham would believe that militarizing police would help increase the security and liberty in this country by stopping occurrences quickly. The other utilitarian, John Stewart Mill, would say that militarizing police would actually invade the security and liberty of citizens in the long run because of these unnecessary raids and military-grade equipment being used without the full military training that should be required.
The police get this equipment for incidents that actually require it. For instance, a sniper rifle would be useful in a hostage situation. Too often, though, police forces get this style of equipment and feel they need to use it. It is like when little kids get a toy from the toy store and they want to go home and play with it: The police get a new MRAP, they want to drive it. They get flash-bang grenades, they want to throw them.
The militarization of police needs to be stopped immediately; use of SWAT teams restored to hostage, barricade and active-shooter situations; and military weapons and equipment returned from police departments to the federal government for storage or disposal. Doing so would maximize the security and liberty in this country rather than invoking fear.
Garrett Moore is an 11th-grade student in Ashley Carruth’s humanities class at Animas High School.
