TRI In The News

Has Local Law Enforcement Become Too Militarized?

6/14/2011

TRI IN THE NEWS: HAS LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT BECOME TOO MILITARIZED?

From Reuters
Original article available here.

Has local law enforcement become too militarized?

The overuse of swat teams in law enforcement is a topic that I've wondered about and rarely seen addressed in the mainstream media. Here is an interesting pull-quote from the Rutherford Institute:

"While the frequency of SWAT operations has increased dramatically in recent years, jumping from 1,000 to 40,000 raids per year by 2001, it appears to have less to do with increases in violent crime and more to do with law enforcement bureaucracy and a police state mentality."

Indeed, according to Kraska's estimates, 75-80 percent of SWAT callouts are now for mere warrant service. In some jurisdictions, SWAT teams are responsible for servicing 100 percent of all drug warrants issued.

A Maryland study, conducted in the wake of a botched raid in 2008 that resulted in the mistaken detainment of Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo and the shooting deaths of his two dogs, corroborates Kraska's findings. According to the study, SWAT teams are deployed 4.5 times per day in Maryland with 94 percent of those deployments being for something as minor as serving search or arrest warrants. In the county in which the Calvo raid occurred, more than 50 percent of SWAT operations carried out were for misdemeanors or non-serious felonies.