for rey writer only government help

Police Tactics Has U.S. law enforcement become militarized?

T he killing in August of an unarmed, black 18-year-

old by police in Ferguson, Mo., has intensified a

long-simmering debate over how police do their

jobs. The shooting of Michael Brown by white

officer Darren Wilson has led to angry and sometimes violent

protests, initially heightened when police in military-style gear and

armored vehicles responded to the unrest. The tactics highlighted

what some criticize as the “militarization” of America’s police forces,

fueled by a Pentagon program that supplies local police with

surplus weapons and vehicles. Others say police overuse SWAT

teams to serve warrants and enforce drug laws. The Ferguson

shooting and other recent high-profile police killings of unarmed

African-Americans also has ignited a national outcry against what

many say is disproportionate police action against black males.

Police respond that low-income communities of all races have the

highest crime rates and that they need military-style equipment to

defend themselves in a heavily armed society.

A helmeted, heavily armed police officer stands watch during demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., some violent, after the deadly shooting on Aug. 9 of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white officer. The massive response to the demonstrations by officers in

armored vehicles and military-style garb raised concerns about law enforcement tactics and what

some see as the militarization of police.

CQ Researcher • Dec. 12, 2014 • www.cqresearcher.com Volume 24, Number 44 • Pages 1033-1060

RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE u AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD

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I

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E

THE ISSUES ..................1035

BACKGROUND ..............1044

CHRONOLOGY ..............1045

AT ISSUE......................1051

CURRENT SITUATION ......1052

OUTLOOK....................1053

BIBLIOGRAPHY..............1058

THE NEXT STEP ............1059

THISREPORT

Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. www.cqresearcher.com

1034 CQ Researcher

THE ISSUES

1035 • Do SWAT teams and mili- tary tactics and weaponry have a place in policing? • Has police use of military- style tactics increased tensions with minority communities? • Do body cameras prevent police misconduct?

BACKGROUND

1044 Troops in the StreetsThe military has occasionally been used to enforce laws on U.S. soil.

1044 War on DrugsThe drug war prompted growing police aggressiveness in the 1970s.

1048 Drawing FireControversy over military-style law enforcement grew in the 1990s.

1049 New TensionsCounterterrorism became a police responsibility after 9/11.

CURRENT SITUATION

1052 Stemming the FlowCongress is considering re- stricting the flow of military equipment to police.

1052 Troubled CitiesTwo recent non-indictments of officers fueled anger over police conduct.

OUTLOOK

1053 Re-engineering Police Culture Changing attitudes could take generations.

SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS

1036 Vehicles, Aircraft Top Listof Military Supplies Police received more than $1.5 billion in surplus military gear since 2006.

1037 Most SWAT DeploymentsAre for Search Warrants The special teams serve war- rants 70 percent of the time.

1040 Police Say ‘Shoot toWound’ Is Not an Option “If you point a gun at a police officer, you have punched your ticket.”

1043 Blacks Rate Police Poorlyfor Use of Force Seven in 10 blacks disapprove of police behavior.

1045 ChronologyKey events since 1957.

1046 Police Face Danger inEveryday Situations Even routine traffic stops can turn deadly.

1051 At Issue:Are U.S. police departments becoming dangerously militarized?

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

1057 For More InformationOrganizations to contact.

1058 BibliographySelected sources used.

1059 The Next StepAdditional articles.

1059 Citing CQ ResearcherSample bibliography formats.

POLICE TACTICS

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Police Tactics

THE ISSUES T

he images packed a powerful punch: men in battle dress, carry-

ing automatic rifles, riding in armored personnel carriers and throwing noise-and-light pro- ducing “flash-bang” grenades to disperse crowds. 1

The show of paramilitary might was happening not at a mass street demonstration in Cairo or Rio de Janeiro but the St. Louis, Mo., suburb of Ferguson. It came in re- sponse to angry, sometimes violent, protests against the death in August of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year- old shot to death by a city policeman. Public and political indig-

nation over the shooting ex- ploded at the military appear- ance of the Ferguson police, helping to fuel days-long protests in the town and deepen suspicion and fear of law enforcement. “There’s no question in my mind that the idea that all of this equipment . . . contributed to a mentality among the peaceful protesters that they were being treated as the enemy,” Missouri Sen. Claire McClaskill, a Democrat, said in a Senate Home- land Security Committee hearing last September. 2

The Ferguson shooting and its con- tinuing aftermath struck a raw nerve, aggravated by a string of shootings, some fatal, arising from police-citizen encounters in several cities, including New York; Albuquerque, N.M.; Colum- bia, S.C., and Beavercreek, Ohio. In the Ohio case, a Walmart shopper in the Dayton suburb was seen talking on his cellphone while walking the aisles, hold- ing a BB gun he had taken down from

a shelf. Police, responding to a 911 call, shot him dead. In New York, Eric Garner died in a police chokehold — gasping “I can’t breathe” — after verbally protest- ing an arrest for selling single cigarettes on the street. A grand jury declined to indict the officer involved, prompting widespread protests. (See “Current Sit- uation,” p. 1052.) 3

Garner was black, and the officer who choked him was white. The Wal- mart shopper, John Crawford III, was black, and the two officers who shot him were white. The Ferguson shooting presented the same racial pattern — as do other, but not all — of the episodes

prompting current controversies over police tactics. “Ferguson laid bare . . . a simmering dis- trust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of color,” President Obama said at the White House. “When any part of the American fam- ily does not feel like it is being treated fairly, that’s a problem for all of us.” 4

Even some police profes- sionals say the appearance of militarization is eroding public trust in law enforcement. “Per- ception is reality,” said Mark Lomax, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association — a professional organization for police special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team members. “Right now, the perception is there’s a mil- itarization of policing, which becomes a reality to a lot of people.” 5

Controversy over police tactics also intersects with intensified debate over drug laws and how they are en- forced. Critics, including some former law enforce- ment officials, say the na- tion’s decades-long “war on

drugs” — which often involves raids by helmeted, flash-bang grenade- throwing SWAT teams — has been misguided and dangerous. The mili- tary terminology associated with U.S. anti-drug policy “evokes images of friends and foes and enemies of the police and enemies of society,” says former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stam- per. “If you’re talking about a 16- year-old nonviolent drug offender, he’s not the enemy.” In Washington much of the furor

over police tactics has centered on a 23-year-old program for transferring Defense Department surplus gear to

BY PETER KATEL

A P P h o to /T o n y D e ja k

Demonstrators block Cleveland’s Public Square on Nov. 25 during a protest over the fatal shooting of 12- year-old Tamir Rice, an African-American shot by a white Cleveland police officer after waving and reportedly reaching for a toy gun at a city park. A video of the

shooting shows a police car driving up next to the boy, who was shot two seconds later.

1036 CQ Researcher

police departments, a once-informal system that expanded along with the drug war. The program is now known as “1033” after the relevant section of federal law. Since 1990, the Pentagon has shifted

more than $5.1 billion worth of surplus equipment to local and federal law enforcement entities — 96 percent of it nonlethal supplies such as office fur- niture, tents and forklifts, but also some 90,000 pistols and assault rifles and 600 armored vehicles. (See graphic, above.) Data show big increases in equipment transfers in 2012 and 2013, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were winding down. 6

Critics say the gear encourages military-style tactics against civilians. “Cutting off the supply of military weaponry to our civilian police is the least we could do to begin the process of reining in police milita- rization and attempting to make clear the increasingly blurred distinction between the military and police,” Peter Kraska, chair of criminal justice studies at Eastern Kentucky University in Rich- mond, Ky., told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in September. Kraska pioneered studies of police SWAT teams, first created in 1967 to deal with high-risk episodes such as hostage rescues. 7

But police defenders call increased militarization a myth. Unlike the military, “SWAT teams do not engage the enemy with the purpose of destroying them; they are trained to protect life,” says Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest law-enforcement union, and former operations chief of the county police department in Conway, S.C. “The majority of SWAT calls end with nobody injured; if the military had a record like that, they’d be losing the war.” And much of the Pentagon equip-

ment, such as high-wheeled trucks and forklifts, are used in disaster-recovery missions, Alan Estevez, the Defense undersecretary in charge of the surplus equipment system, told a Senate com- mittee in September. 8

But during the early days of 1033, the Justice Department didn’t cite dis- aster relief as a prime justification for the program. “The best examples of law enforcement and military partici- pation in common missions are the ‘wars’ being waged against narcotics and terrorism,” a 1997 Justice Depart- ment report on developing weapons and technology for military and police use stated. 9

Among those tools were flash-bang grenades. They are part of SWAT team toolkits but have caused at least seven unintended deaths, including of a police officer, and burn injuries prompting a total of $2.1 million in settlements in two cases in 2010 and 2011. 10

Last May, SWAT officers from Geor- gia’s Habersham County and Cornelia city threw a flash-bang grenade into a house during a 3 a.m. drug raid, causing third-degree burns on a 19- month-old child and blowing a hole in his chest. The raiders were seeking a relative who wasn’t home. 11

County Sheriff Joey Terrell said au- thorities didn’t know children were present but argued drug raids call for SWAT deployment. Drug dealers, he said, “are no better than a domestic

POLICE TACTICS

Vehicles, Aircraft Top List of Military Supplies

The Department of Defense has supplied local police departments with more than $1.5 billion worth of surplus equipment over the past eight years. Most of the hardware was vehicles, including armored ones, aircraft and communications and detection equipment. Only $40 million worth of the equipment was for weapons.

* Spending data from 2006 through April 2014

Source: Analysis by David Eads and Tyler Fisher, “MRAPs And Bayonets: What We Know About The Pentagon’s 1033 Program,” NPR, Sept. 2, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/p3a4fqj; original data for 1033 program expenditures located at “LESO Program data,” Defense Logistics Agency, http://tinyurl.com/n7koanr

Value of Top 10 Types of Military Equipment Supplied to Law

Enforcement, 2006-2014*

(in $ millions) $0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Value of Top 10 Types of Milit Equipment Supplied to Law

Enforcement, 2006-2014*

$0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Tractors

Medical

Electric Wire

Weapons

Fire Control

Construction

Clothing

Communications and Detection

Aircraft

Vehicles $699

$343

$182

$52

$44

$42 $40

$39

$38

$33

Dec. 12, 2014 1037www.cqresearcher.com

terrorist, . . . and I think we should treat them as such.” 12

With many drug dealers today being heavily armed, drug raids can be ex- tremely dangerous for cops. In 2012, a member of an Ogden, Utah, drug strike force was killed and five others were wounded during a raid on a house to serve a search warrant on a small-scale marijuana case suspect, who fired at police. 13

SWAT teams are used predominantly to serve search warrants, mostly in drug cases. According to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) survey, 79 percent of SWAT deployments in 2011-12 involved searches — 62 percent of them for drugs. 14

Concern that SWAT teams are being wrongly assigned to duties that don’t require a high-intensity approach runs through police circles. Inappropriate SWAT deployments are “more prevalent in smaller agencies,” says Charles “Sid” Heal, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officer who com- manded a SWAT unit. “They may get 12 callouts a year, and they have to justify their existence.” Raiding a “dime- bag dealer” does not require a tactical team, but SWAT raids against high- level drug dealers are fully justified, Heal says, given the long sentences they face if arrested. “They’ve got noth- ing to lose,” he adds. Officers face other dangerous ene-

mies as well. Last September, a sniper killed a Pennsylvania state trooper as he ended his shift. (See sidebar, p. 1046.) And in Albuquerque last year, an AK-47-wielding gunman with “cop killer” tattooed on his knuckles shot and gravely wounded a sheriff’s deputy before being shot to death. 15

Part of the Albuquerque gunfight was captured on officers’ body-worn cameras. Support is growing for wide- spread use of the devices because, supporters say, both police and citizens tend to behave better when they are being recorded. But some experts warn against plac-

ing too much faith in cameras — or in military gear. “There is a time and place for police to . . . use military weapons and tactics to end a threat to human life,” former Seattle chief Stamper says, but “there are no strings attached, no training requirements or certification that the local agency is going to use that equipment under very carefully circumscribed circum- stances.” As law enforcement officials, Con-

gress and the public weigh the use of aggressive tactics and military-style equipment by police, here are some of the questions under debate:

Do SWAT teams and military tactics and weaponry have a place in policing? Debate over militarization was well

underway before recent media reports on the 1033 program and its transfers of military guns and personnel carriers to local police departments. Much of that early debate focused

on the formation of SWAT teams.

Los Angeles formed the first SWAT team, in 1967, prompted by violent events that included a sniper attack on the University of Texas at Austin campus. By the late 1990s, about 89 percent of departments in cities with 50,000 people or more had SWAT units, a rate that experts say holds true today. 16

An upswing in the number of heavily armed criminals, mass shootings and other emergencies prompted the spread of tactical units, concluded a 2002 Cal- ifornia commission study of the state’s SWAT operations. Most countries would send a national police force to such emergencies, the study found, but U.S. law leaves most policing duties to cities, counties and states. “It became clear that a new method

of response to such complex, high- risk and often high-energy situations was needed,” the study said. “Over the years, SWAT has evolved into the man- agement of barricaded suspect situa- tions, the service of high-risk warrants, dignitary protection and the actual res- cue of hostages.” 17

Most SWAT Deployments Are for Search Warrants

Police departments executed four out of five SWAT team deployments to serve search warrants in 2011 and 2012, according to a civil liberties organization’s study of 20 law enforcement agencies. Another 17 percent of deployments were for other purposes, such as protecting visiting officials, responding to emergencies and pursuing fleeing suspects.

Source: “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing,” American Civil Liberties Union, June 2014, p. 31, http://tinyurl.com/myxzoju

Percentage of SWAT Deployments, by Purpose, 2011-2012

Other

Search warrant

Unknown

1038 CQ Researcher

The commission was formed after an 11-year-old boy was accidentally killed during a 2000 SWAT raid conducted with FBI and Drug Enforcement Admin- istration (DEA) agents in Modesto, Calif. Then-state Attorney General Bill Lockyer was “concerned about the potential ero- sion of community confidence in local law enforcement agencies caused by such tragedies,” the commission said. 18

But SWAT teams are increasingly active, according to Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University, who found an in- crease of 57,000 SWAT deployments between 1980 and 2007. 19

Moreover, Lomax, of the National Tactical Officers Association, told a Sen- ate committee: “It is not uncommon for agencies to take receipt of such [military] equipment and receive little or no training on how to utilize it, when to deploy it and, equally as im- portant, when not to deploy it.” 20

Critics including the ACLU and Radley Balko, a Washington Post blog- ger and one of the earliest critics of the expansion and growing use of SWAT teams, argues that many of them are being used to serve run-of-the-mill search and arrest warrants, unneces- sarily using overwhelming force. “We see SWAT teams now in white-collar crimes, even regulatory crimes, [such as] barbering without a license” Balko, told an Albuquerque audience in No- vember. He cited an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision in September that SWAT raids on Orlando, Fla., barber- shops were unconstitutional. 21

Police, as well as police critics, say many SWAT teams are misdirected to routine duties. A 2011 policy paper pub- lished by the Alexandria, Va.-based In- ternational Association of Chiefs of Police said serving search warrants was the “most common” task of SWAT teams — with some departments sending them to every search. That policy represented “overuse of a team created to deal with high-risk interventions,” the paper said. 22

Some specialists trace what they call an overreliance on SWAT to an eager-

ness to acquire military equipment. “Once you get the equipment you have to develop the military mindset to use it,” says sociologist Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer and professor in the Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration de- partment at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “You can have the mindset without equipment, but you can do less damage.” Weapons trainers, who teach police

officers that “it’s a war out there, every- one is out to get you,” also foster a military mentality, says Moskos. “That is not a realistic fear.” But Canterbury, of the Fraternal Order

of Police, says given the fundamental difference between military and police missions, military equipment — even attention-getting mine-resistant vehicles — have effectively been demilitarized for police use. “They don’t have military weapons or computer systems on them,” he says. “They’re nothing but an armored vehicle once law enforcement gets them.” Richard Greenleaf, director of the crim-

inal justice major at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Ill., and a former sergeant in the Albuquerque Police Department, doesn’t question the view that police are militarizing. But he also says police are rightly danger-conscious because of the nation’s high rate of gun ownership. 23

“America has more guns per capita than any other country in the whole world, and many of them are very powerful,” Greenleaf says. “You can’t not think about that when you think about the militarization of the police.” For many policing experts, an event

that confirmed the need for SWAT teams as well as heavier armament for regular patrol cops was a 44-minute shootout in North Hollywood, Calif., in 1997 in which two body-armor-wearing bank robbers with several assault rifles, plus handguns, exchanged nearly 2,000 rounds with officers, including some SWAT team members. The robbers were killed, but no police died. “Patrol officers had never before been engaged in such

a protracted, high-intensity firefight,” Bob Parker, a former Omaha SWAT com- mander, wrote in Police magazine. 24

Stamper, the former Seattle police chief, was in the San Diego Police Department when a gunman killed 21 people at a McDonald’s restaurant there before a po- lice sniper killed him. 25 Stamper says military capabilities are essential, but they are being overused. He largely blames politicians who constantly depicted drug enforcement in military terms. “It started with ‘drug war,’ ” he says. “And there is a macho dimension to this that can’t be denied. It’s boys with toys.” Police departments that routinely

use SWAT teams to serve drug-case warrants should return to standard pro- cedures that would make most raids unnecessary, Stamper argues. “Why have 14 cops for one low-level offender?” he asks. “What about surveillance — watching for the suspect to come out? He comes out, goes into his car, and you conduct a routine traffic stop.” Heal, the former Los Angeles County

Sheriff’s Department commander, agrees that with low-level drug dealers, the best option is to determine “if you can do a door-knock and tell a guy to come out.” Nevertheless, he says, such deter-

minations are subjective, with no easy formulas to apply. And in the case of higher-level traffickers, “Whether people want to believe it or not, drug dealers are inherently dangerous,” Heal says. “I don’t know of a single one anywhere I wouldn’t consider them a threat.”

Has police use of military-style tactics increased tensions with minority communities? The community-police conflict that

erupted in Ferguson after the shooting death of Brown illustrated, again, that controversies over police conduct often involve a racial dimension. Recent Jus- tice Department investigations of police departments found discriminatory con- duct toward African-Americans, and in some cases Latinos, in Maricopa County, Ariz.; East Haven, Conn.; New Orleans;

POLICE TACTICS

Dec. 12, 2014 1039www.cqresearcher.com

Newark; Alamance County, N.C., and Portland, Ore. 26

An analysis by the investigative news website ProPublica of fatal police shoot- ings of teenagers ages 15-19 concluded that in 2010-2012, black teens were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, compared to 1.47 per million among white teens. 27

ProPublica acknowledged that the FBI data it used, which include victims’ race — and which show 1,217 fatal police shootings overall, adults and mi- nors, in those years — were “terribly incomplete.” Indeed a Wall Street Jour- nal investigation counted at least 1,800 deaths at police hands but found only 1,242 recorded in police department records. Some experts argued that though a racial disproportion exists, ProPublica’s use of the data vastly over- stated the trend. Moskos of John Jay College of Criminal Justice calculated, using the same data, that if ProPublica had analyzed 15 years of available sta- tistics instead of three years, the results would show that black youths were nine times likelier — instead of 21 times likelier — to be killed by police than young white people — “a huge differ- ence,” Moskos wrote. The underlying data also showed 62 police shootings of all teenagers in 2010-2012 reported to the FBI. One of the ProPublica re- porters said that the analysis focused on recent years because “the disparity is growing.” 28

In addition to the killings of Brown and Garner, other recent police-involved deaths of African-Americans include: • John Crawford III, 22, shot dead

by police in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Wal- mart, while talking on his cellphone and walking the aisles holding a BB gun he had taken down from a shelf; • Akai Gurley, 28, a resident of a

Brooklyn public housing project, who was shot while walking down a darkened stairway. Police called the shooting, by a rookie officer, unintentional; and • Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Cleveland

boy who was shot after waving and

then reportedly reaching for a toy pistol that resembled a real one. 29 (See side- bar, p. 1044.) For many politicians and ordinary cit-

izens, the deaths were only the latest illustrations of what they call police over- aggressiveness — if not hostility — when it comes to black men. President Obama is one of many to weigh in on the topic. “Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement,” Obama said in a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus in September. “We know that, statistically, in everything from en- forcing drug policy to applying the death

penalty to pulling people over, there are significant racial disparities.” 30

The deaths above did not arise from drug cases, but drug enforcement usually comes up in discussions of police and race. Police critics say drug-war tactics are one of the issues underlying the outcry over Brown’s death. “The war on drugs and war on crime have been predominantly waged in racial and eth- nic minority communities and too often against African-Americans,” Hilary Shel- ton, the NAACP’s senior vice president for advocacy, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in September. 31

Protesters in Los Angeles stage a sit-in on Nov. 25, one day after a grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, the white Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. The demonstration was one of dozens around the country since August in response to several recent cases in which unarmed

African-American males have been killed by white police officers, two of whom were not indicted.

G e tt y Im a g e s/ A n a d o lu A g e n cy / M in ta h a N e sl ih a n E ro g lu

1040 CQ Researcher

A leading African-American political figure, the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, connected the deaths of Brown and Gar- ner to police action against minor offenses. Brown died after being stopped for walk- ing in the street. The shooter, Officer Darren Wilson — who has resigned — said he believed Brown and a friend might have stolen cigarillos from a nearby store, although police initially said Wilson didn’t know of that incident.

“Both of them were victims of this aggressive policing of alleged low-level crime,” Sharpton said. 32

Sharpton’s role as a nationwide police critic is especially irritating to police who resent being portrayed as overly focused on African-Americans. “Al Sharp- ton is a race-baiter,” says Canterbury of the FOP. He questioned why Sharpton hadn’t visited Chicago, where 10 other black men were killed in crimes in the

eight days before Brown was shot. 33

In fact, Sharpton held a meeting in Chicago last year to address gun vio- lence in the city’s black neighborhoods. And in speaking at Brown’s funeral, he said: “We’ve got to be straight up in our community, too. We have to be outraged at . . . our killing and shooting and running around gun-toting each other.” 34

Poverty, not race, is what focuses police attention on some communities,

POLICE TACTICS

P olice veterans are of one mind when someone — a politician, a journalist, a member of the public — asks why police don’t shoot to wound when they open fire,

especially on an unarmed civilian. Following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson,

Mo., police officer, the question came from CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer: “Why do they have to shoot to kill? . . . Why can’t they shoot to injure, shall we say?” 1

The question may seem reasonable — especially after an unarmed citizen dies in a police shooting. In 2010, following one such death, New York state Assembly-

woman Annette Robinson of Brooklyn proposed legislation that would have required a police officer to use deadly force “with the intent to stop, rather than kill.” Robinson, who represents the largely African-American and low-income Bedford-Stuyvesant area, said she was responding to what she called a disproportionate number of police shootings of black men. “I do know that it happens, most often in the communities that I represent,” she said, “and it happens too often.” 2

Specifically, Robinson proposed the legislation in response to the 2006 shooting death of Sean Bell, killed on his wedding day by undercover police who thought — mistakenly — that Bell and a friend, both black, were armed and about to commit a drive-by shooting. 3 But the bill died in committee amid heavy ridicule from police organizations. 4

Police say officers in fast-moving confrontations have no time for precision shooting. “It works real well when you’re shooting at a piece of paper,” says Chuck Canterbury of Myrtle Beach, S.C., president of the national Fraternal Order of Police union. “We’re not snipers. We’re trained to point and shoot.” The objective, former police officers say, is not to kill, but

to stop a threat to innocent human life. In practice, stopping a threat means shooting at the biggest target, which is the torso, what police trainers call the body’s “center mass.” Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, a liberal critic of

much police strategy, calls the idea that an officer can deliberately

shoot to wound “a fallacy.” Police officers can be poor shots, he points out, especially

in highly stressful situations. The New York Police Department reported that in 29 incidents in which officers fired their weapons, they hit at least one of their targets in only 64 percent of their shots. And in one incident, nine bystanders were injured when police fired 16 rounds at a man who had killed his ex-boss on a crowded sidewalk. 5

Richard Greenleaf, director of the criminal justice major at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Ill., recalls from his days as an Al- buquerque, N.M., police officer in the late 1970s and early ’80s that colleagues who had been highly accurate shooters during training “in a real situation would miss 80 percent of the time.” Greenleaf says he was a bad shot on the range. But one

night in 1981, he faced a man with a .22-caliber pistol who was running out of a convenience store he had just robbed. “I chased him to the back of the building,” Greenleaf says. “He turned; I said, ‘Oh, [no], he’s going to shoot. I managed to hit him twice in three shots. He died. I do believe that if he had killed me, he would feel less remorse than I feel.” The next day, Greenleaf’s girlfriend reported that a man

walked into the bail bond company she ran and asked, “ ‘Why didn’t that cop wound him?’ ” Says Greenleaf: “His perception was that I should have shot

the gun out of his hand.” At least one country, Israel, recognizes shooting to wound as

a tactic, at least for its military (human-rights activists criticize Israeli police for shooting to kill). 6 But specially trained Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops must go to great lengths to make such shots, which is why those tactics would be impractical for police. “It is 10 times harder to shoot someone in the leg than to

simply kill him,” an ex-IDF sniper, using a pseudonym, wrote in a long account of lying in wait to wound a target at the border fence between Gaza and Israel. “The leg is narrow, easily concealed by the land and always moving.” 7

Moreover, the target must be standing. “If we shoot while

Police Say ‘Shoot to Wound’ Is Not an Option “If you point a gun at a police officer, you have punched your ticket.”

Dec. 12, 2014 1041www.cqresearcher.com

Canterbury says. “How about talking about poverty-stricken communities? Whether they’re white, black, Hispanic, when you have a neighborhood that has high unemployment, high infant mortality, a high percentage of people who are on public assistance or have been on public assistance, when they don’t see any chance of getting out of their circumstances, drugs are the only way they see to escape.”

Some cities do deploy intensive pa- trols of poor neighborhoods, focusing on violations that affect quality of life. But whether that so-called “broken win- dows” strategy reduces crime is a long- running, unresolved debate among criminologists. 35

Former Seattle police chief Stamper says police don’t get orders to round up African-Americans. However, “You see wildly disproportionate numbers

of young people, poor people, people of color apprehended, jailed — if not imprisoned — as a result of low-level, nonviolent drug offenses.” Race is an inescapable part of the

picture, he argues. “We’ve ended up with a lot of young people of color on street corners doing hand-to-hand deals,” he says. “They’re low-hanging fruit. You get a lot of complaints about that behavior, and the police are called

he is sitting, the bullet could hit his thigh and kill him,” the ex-sniper wrote. Thigh wounds can involve the femoral artery, with fatal consequences. 8

U.S. police do have alternatives to guns, depending on the circumstances. The Taser, a device that can temporarily disable an adversary with an electric discharge, is perhaps the most widely known alternative. But Tasers can be problematic as well. Last March, an 18-

year-old Miami artist, Israel “Reefa” Hernandez, died after Miami Beach police shot him with a Taser. He had tried to run away after they saw him painting graffiti on a vacant building. The Miami-Dade medical examiner concluded that his heart failed after an “energy device discharge.” 9

In Albuquerque, a Justice Department investigation this year into improper use of force concluded that officers “frequently misused” Tasers against people who were merely ignoring orders or who posed little danger. In one case, officers fired at a man who had doused himself with gasoline. The Taser discharges set him on fire, although he survived. 10

Donald E. Wilkes Jr., an emeritus law professor at the University of Georgia, and Athens, Ga., lawyer Lauren Farmer have compiled 618 media accounts of deaths apparently caused by police Taser discharges from 2001 through Oct. 13, 2013. 11

Police experts are unanimous that intensive training on when to use force is essential. Former Seattle chief Stamper cited a rookie police officer’s fatal shooting in November of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio. Rice had been waving a toy pistol. A video of the shooting — showing a police car driving up next to the boy, who was shot two seconds later — demon- strates that the shooting never had to happen, Stamper concludes, saying the officer could have taken cover behind his car and evaluated the situation more calmly. 12

“A more mature, experienced, confident police officer would have better understood what he was facing,” Stamper says. At the same time, he says Rice’s parents never should have

let him outside with a replica pistol, and schools and police

should ensure that children know an essential fact of life: No one seen to pose a mortal threat in the presence of police should expect to walk away, or even to survive. “If you point a gun at a police officer, you have punched

your ticket,” Stamper says. “I don’t care if it’s a toy gun. At a minimum you are going to get two shots to the chest.”

— Peter Katel

1 Quoted in Ahiza Garcia, “Wolf Blitzer: Why Can’t Ferguson Police Just ‘Shoot To Injure?’ ” Talking Points Memo, Aug. 15, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ p8bv42l. 2 Quoted in Brendan Scott, “ ‘Don’t Kill’ Pol in a Cop-Out — Admits: I’m No Expert,” New York Post, May 26, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/ngaq6lx. 3 “An act to amend the penal law, in relation to the use of deadly force by police officers,” New York State Assembly, Jan. 22, 2009, http://tinyurl. com/nbclrau; Murray Weiss, “Cops furious at ‘don’t kill’ bill,” New York Post, May 25, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/m34xej8; Matt Flegenheimer and Al Baker, “Officer in Bell Killing Is Fired,” The New York Times, March 23, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/oy5792m. 4 “NY AO2952 — 2009-2010, General Assembly,” http://tinyurl.com/ndc3xe5. Murray Weiss, “Cops furious at ‘don’t kill’ bill,” New York Post, May 25, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/m34xej8. 5 “Annual Firearms Discharge Report,” New York City Police Department, 2013, pp. 21, 27, http://tinyurl.com/mprloo3. 6 Edo Konrad, “Intellectuals call for investigation into police shooting of Arab youth,” +972 Magazine, Nov. 13, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/pha8ktp. 7 Gershon Morris, “Israeli Sniper’s Anguished Look Into Crosshairs,” Jewish Daily Forward, March 21, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mcr2vy7. 8 Ibid.; Ed Nowicki, “Training for Gunshot Wound Treatment,” Law and Order, April 2009, http://tinyurl.com/n8ashyf. 9 Michael E. Miller, “Israel ‘Reefa’ Hernandez Died by Taser,” Miami New Times, March 13, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lz88jry; Michael E. Miller, “Teenager Israel Hernandez Dies after Miami Beach Cops Catch Him Tagging, Taser Him,” Miami New Times, Aug. 7, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mlwgmda. 10“Civil Investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department,” U.S. Department of Justice, April 10, 2014, p. 3, http://tinyurl.com/n6bubpo; Patrick Lohmann, “APD guilty of Taser abuse,” Albuquerque Journal, April 11, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/kbsgmlg. 11 Donald E. Wilkes Jr. and Lauren Farmer, “Fatal Police Taserings, List and Annexures,” December 2013, http://tinyurl.com/lnlsjh5. 12 Emma G. Fitzsimmons, “Video Shows Cleveland Officer Shot Boy in 2 Seconds,” The New York Times, Nov. 26, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/pajhjnl.

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and do buy-and-busts and scoop up hundreds of thousands of offenders who fall into that demography.” Moskos, of the John Jay College of

Criminal Justice, wrote about police and race in a memoir about a year he spent on the Baltimore police force patrolling poor African-American neighborhoods. He rebuts what he calls the “standard liberal line” that black people are shot because they’re black. 36 “A cop is not shooting a black person,” Moskos says. “A cop is shooting a person because he is afraid, justly or not.”

Do body cameras prevent police misconduct? Aside from race, another thread run-

ning through controversies over police tactics has been the explosive growth of documentary evidence in the form of digital imagery — still and video. Some of this video evidence comes

from police cameras, mounted on squad car dashboards or — more recently

— worn on officers’ bodies. Many police critics, and some officers, say the so-called “bodycams” offer a tech- nological solution to problems that arise between police and citizens. “We won’t have to play this game

of witnesses’ memories and secret grand jury procedures,” Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for Brown’s family, said after the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson for Brown’s death, which was not record- ed. “It would just be transparent, and we could see it ourselves, and we could hold people accountable when they

have interactions with citizens.” 37

Obama embraced the growing move- ment calling for more bodycams, propos- ing spending $75 million over three years to provide up to 50,000 of the devices for local police departments. Technology, he said, can “enhance trust between communities and the police.” 38

Among the police-citizen encounters, some fatal, captured on video from

body or dashboard cameras in recent years are: • A Hamilton, Mont., police officer

in 2010 shot and killed a fleeing driver who had fired on the officer during a routine traffic stop (see sidebar, p. 1040); • A New Mexico State Police officer

in 2013 shot at a minivan containing young children, hitting no one; • Albuquerque Police Department

officers in 2014 shot dead homeless, mentally ill James Boyd, who the video showed was preparing to surrender; • A Salt Lake City officer this year shot

and killed a man reported to have a gun, who first refused to raise his hands, then lifted his shirt and reached for his waistband; he turned out to be unarmed. 39

Body cameras — attached to an of- ficer’s belt, lapel or helmet — were in- troduced in Britain in 2005. 40 In Rialto, Calif., citizen complaints against officers dropped 88 percent from the previous 12 months after some officers began wearing them two years ago. “When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better,” Rialto’s police chief told The New York Times. “And if a citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better.” 41

Cameras are spreading to departments bigger than Rialto’s 54 patrol officers. New York City began experimenting

with bodycams in September, after U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the city’s police department was stopping and frisking a dispro- portionate number of black and Latino men, in violation of constitutional pro- tections. 42 (See “Background,” p. 1050.) Experts caution that good results

from cameras depend on how depart- ments use them — including specifying what kind of encounters should not be recorded, keeping a camera on until an interaction is over and obtaining consent to record crime victims. 43

In Albuquerque, where officers began wearing lapel or belt cameras in 2010, the Justice Department found un-

POLICE TACTICS

Denver police commander Magen Dodge displays a body camera during a press conference on Aug. 27. Denver Police hope to equip 800 officers, including all patrol and traffic officers, with “bodycams” by 2015. Many police critics, and some officers, say the cameras can help resolve problems between citizens and police. But some law enforcement officers worry they will have limited value, and possibly limit officers’ discretion.

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systematic use. “We . . . reviewed numerous reports where offices and supervisors on the scene failed to turn on their lapel cameras or belt tapes,” the department said in a highly critical assessment of the department earlier this year. 44

Indeed, shortly after the Justice De- partment issued its report, an Albuquerque officer shot and killed 19-year-old Mary Hawkes, claiming the suspected truck thief had pointed a pistol at him during a foot chase. The officer, Jeremy Dear, was wearing a camera, but no video of the shooting could be found. 45

In early December, the Albuquerque department fired Dear for “insubordina- tion,” saying he had not complied with a policy to record all interactions with citizens. Officials said Dear claimed he had turned on the camera, but the camera manufacturer said it couldn’t determine if the device malfunctioned, if Dear had turned it off or had never turned it on. Dear also had failed to record two pre- vious incidents, police said. His lawyer, Thomas Grover, said Dear hadn’t been told of the recording policy. 46

Moskos at John Jay College of Criminal Justice said in an era of ubiquitous cellphone cameras, depart- ments need to keep up with the times. “Often on these scenes, cops are the ones without cameras,” Moskos says, which argues for police having their own — perhaps more complete — record of an incident. Nevertheless, police suspicion of

cameras is understandable, Moskos says “I think it’s going to limit police dis- cretion,” he says. “Sometimes you just cut a guy a break. [But] what if that guy then goes out and kills someone?” Police union president Canterbury

cites research by a private firm in Mankato, Minn., that provides expert testimony in lawsuits against officers and police departments. Cameras re- spond better to dim light, for instance, than the human eye. But recording speed is slower than the eye. 47 “There are things an officer may see that the camera won’t,” Canterbury says.

He also cautions that citizens should realize that a lot of police video, in- cluding interviews with witnesses, will be public record and available to the media. “Will they make members of

the public uncomfortable?” he asks. “Absolutely.” And confidential witnesses could be identified. Former Seattle police chief Stamper,

who originally opposed body cameras

Blacks Rate Police Poorly for Use of Force

Seven in 10 black Americans say police do a poor job of holding other officers accountable for misconduct and treating racial and ethnic groups equally. Additionally, 57 percent of blacks say police do a poor job of using the right amount of force. By comparison, only about one-quarter of whites say police do a poor job of holding officers accountable, treating racial groups equally and using the right amount of force.

* Totals may not add to 100 percent because of rounding.

Source: “Few Say Police Forces Nationally Do Well in Treating Races Equally,” Pew Research Center, Aug. 25, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lgh86qc

0% 20 40 60 80 10060 80 10020 40400%

Black

White

Black

White

Black

White

Excellent Good Fair Poor

Views on Police Job Performance, by Race, 2014

0% 20 40 60 80 100

0% 20 40 60 80 100

How well do you think police:

Hold other officers accountable for misconduct?

Treat racial and ethnic groups equally?

Use the right amount of force for each situation?

(Percentages)

(Percentages)

(Percentages)

1044 CQ Researcher

POLICE TACTICS

and now supports them, warns that they may pose serious complications for officers and, indirectly, for citizens. “Assume you’re working for a hard- ass sergeant who’s all about numbers, numbers, and you’re a cop who’s com- munity-oriented, committed to solving landlord-tenant disputes, [and] you spend time talking with people,” Stam- per says. “And you’ve got all this on film and the sergeant says, ‘You want to be social worker or a cop?’ ” With greater use of cameras inevitable,

citizens and police will have to adjust, experts say. “They’re going to have to come to the realization that no matter how good the camera, it can’t incorporate everything,” Stamper says.

BACKGROUND Troops in the Streets

Long before police militarization be-came a widely discussed issue, the military was used, on occasion, to en-

force laws on U.S. soil. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878

placed limits on when the military could be used to enforce state or federal laws. It also prohibited the military from par- ticipating in emergencies, except when specifically authorized. 48 (State National Guard forces, first formally established in 1824, represented an exception, be- cause they are under both federal and state authority; governors can deploy them to deal with natural disasters and civil disorders). 49

Nearly 80 years after Congress passed the Posse Comitatus law, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, to enforce a high school deseg- regation opposed by mobs of white segregationists. He acted under a law authorizing the military to take the place of local police if they could not protect individuals or if federal law was being violated. 50

Although the Army in that case was sent in to do a job that police wouldn’t or couldn’t perform, the Defense De- partment and local and federal law enforcement agencies, broadly speak-

ing, already enjoyed a cooperative re- lationship. The agencies had received surplus military helicopters, handheld radios and other devices from World War II and the Korean War. 51

And in the 1960s and ’70s, research funded by the Justice Department de- veloped lightweight body armor made of Kevlar, a synthetic fiber, which be- came widely used by both the military and police. 52 During the same period, National Guard or Army troops were sent in to quell uprisings in black urban neighborhoods: in Los Angeles in 1965; Detroit in 1967; and Baltimore, Wash- ington and Chicago in 1968 after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 53 In the Watts section of Los Angeles (and later in Detroit), residents protesting police tactics shot at police, troops and firefighters. Police thinking was also influenced

by a 1966 massacre at the University of Texas, Austin, in which a student, a Marine veteran, shot 43 people from the campus clock tower, killing 13. The sniper episode, coupled with the urban unrest, prompted the Los Angeles Police Department in 1967 to form the country’s first SWAT team. 54

The team came to public attention during a search-warrant raid on a Black Panther Party headquarters in Los Angeles that resulted in a four-hour-shoot-out with armed occupants (no one was killed). 55

War on Drugs

As the Los Angeles innovation drewgrowing interest from other police departments, the country was entering the early stages of what became known as the “war on drugs.” (President Richard M. Nixon, widely credited as the author of the phrase, was more specific, declaring “war against heroin addiction.”) 56

Legislatively, the war began when Congress — pushed by the Nixon ad-

Continued on p. 1046

Looters flee with stolen shoes during widespread rioting in South-Central Los Angeles on April 30, 1992. The riots were sparked by the acquittals of three

white police officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King; the jury deadlocked on a fourth officer. More than 60 people died during the five days of rioting. Later that year, two of the officers were convicted of

federal charges of violating King’s civil rights; two were acquitted.

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Chronology 1957-1969Mili- tary forces quell civil rights conflicts and urban uprisings, under exception to law barring domestic use of armed forces.

1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends Army troops to Little Rock, Ark., to enforce school desegregation.

1966 U.S. Marine veteran shoots 43 people, killing 13, from clock tower at University of Texas at Austin, prompting early fears of mass shootings.

1967 Army sent to Detroit to quell urban uprising. . . . Los Angeles forms the first police special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team.

•

1970-1989Drug war starts; military-law en- forcement cooperation grows.

1970 Congress authorizes “no-knock” searches when police suspect evi- dence could be destroyed if officers announce themselves.

1971 Armed forces and civil law en- forcement agencies begin cooper- ating in drug enforcement, includ- ing small-scale loans of military equipment and personnel.

1974 Reports of abusive police searches prompt repeal of “no-knock” pro- vision.

1981 Congress requires that the military hunt drug smugglers.

1989 Congress authorizes Defense De- partment to fund National Guard drug enforcement programs.

•

1990-1999 Military-police cooperation broadened.

1990 Congress begins formal program of providing military equipment to police departments for use in drug enforce- ment, later known as 1033 program.

1992 Massive, deadly riots break out in South-Central Los Angeles following acquittal of four police officers charged with brutal beating of black motorist Rodney King — a beating captured on video that was widely replayed on TV.

1996 Congress removes requirement police use surplus military equipment only in drug enforcement operations.

1999 Demonstrations against World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle met by forceful police response, includ- ing mass arrests and rubber bullets. . . . In notorious school shootings, two students attack Columbine High School in Colorado, leaving 13 dead.

•

2001-Present Counter-terrorism duties assigned to police departments as a re- sult of 9/11 attacks.

2005 State Department calls “domestic pre- paredness” against terrorism a “staple of law enforcement operations.”

2007 At least 80 percent of police de- partments have SWAT teams.

2009 Outrage follows video of transit officer shooting unarmed, prone young man in Oakland, Calif., subway station.

2011 Justice Department concludes that Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff’s department practices racial profiling and other unconstitutional actions, in one of about 20 investigations of U.S. police misconduct.

2013 Bill de Blasio elected mayor of New York City after opposing “stop-and-frisk” searches that dis- proportionately affect young black and Latino men.

2014 After 27 fatal shootings and other violent episodes by Albuquerque, N.M., Police Department since 2010, Justice Department reports that the department has violated constitutional limits on use of force. . . . Flash-bang grenade use in SWAT raid in Cornelia, Ga., gravely injures infant. . . . Video captures police chokehold death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y. . . . Ferguson, Mo., police of- ficer shoots unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, sparking violent protests there and nationwide. . . . Military gear deployed against Fer- guson demonstrators prompts con- gressional hearing on 1033 pro- gram and police militarization. . . . St. Louis County, Mo., grand jury declines to indict police officer Darren Wilson in death of Brown, leading to widespread protests and some violence and arson. . . . Cleveland police officer fatally shoots 12-year-old boy brandishing a toy pistol.

1046 CQ Researcher

ministration — passed the Comprehen- sive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act in 1970. Among other things, it au- thorized “no-knock” searches if police believed that evidence might be destroyed — which came to be interpreted as any drug raid on a house. The measure would prove crucial to the development in smaller cities of SWAT teams as door- battering search units. 57 Four years later Congress repealed the “no-knock” au-

thorization after a series of drug raids led to violence and abuse by police, triggering a political scandal. 58

Nevertheless, starting in the 1980s, police conducting raids could obtain authorization not to announce they were at the door. In the 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld no-knock search- es, ruling that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against “unreasonable search- es and seizures” did not flatly rule out unannounced searches. And, under a

1984 Supreme Court ruling, even when a search was found to be constitutionally unjustified, evidence seized can still be used against defendants. 59

The military and police had begun cooperating in drug enforcement cases in the 1970s, a development that would reverberate decades later. From 1971 to 1981, the Army, Air Force and Navy carried out 140 joint missions with civil- ian law enforcement agencies and fre- quently provided “minor assistance,”

POLICE TACTICS

Continued from p. 1044

E ric Frein allegedly lay in wait outside the Pennsylvania State Police Troop R building in Blooming Grove, holding a .308 caliber rifle with a scope. At about 10:50 p.m. on Sept. 12,

when Cpl. Bryon Dickson was leaving the building in uniform, his colleagues inside saw him suddenly drop to the ground. 1

A 38-year-old Marine Corps veteran, Dickson was dead at the scene. Trooper Alex Douglass, one of the officers who tried to help him, was shot in the pelvis. 2

The ambush prompted a 48-day manhunt for Frein, who was captured on Oct. 30. 3 Pennsylvania prosecutors said Frein confessed to killing Dickson, calling the act an “assassination,” though seemingly not aimed at any officer in particular. In a message to his parents that police reported finding on his com- puter, Frein wrote: “The time seems right for a spark to ignite a fire in the hearts of men.” 4

Dickson never had a chance. His killing underscores the risks police officers face daily, even

in environments that seem completely safe — including their own headquarters, as the Pennsylvania case illustrated. Experts say constant danger is one reason many law enforcement officers see potential threats lurking even in the most routine encounters, a sense of constant peril that can lead to misjudgments. “Officer safety does matter,” says Peter Moskos, an associate

professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a former one-year member of the Baltimore Police Department. “But the job does have risks. If you always wanted to be safe, you’d never leave the police station.” Statistically, officer fatalities have decreased since their post-

World War II peak of 280 in 1974. By late November this year, 113 officers had been killed or died in the line of duty (42 of them in traffic accidents). That figure was up from 100 in 2013, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a Washington-based group that keeps records on police deaths dating back to 1791. 5

James Glennon, a former commander in the DuPage County,

Ill., Major Crimes Task Force and now owner of Lifeline Training, a company that runs instructional programs for police, says seemingly ordinary police business can hold the most danger. “We’re not getting shot at bank robberies, really,” he said. “We’re getting shot at during bike theft investigations, traffic stops, evictions.” 6

A video taken by a police officer’s dashboard-mounted camera and widely circulated in police circles shows a 2010 traffic stop in Hamilton, Mont. “How’s it going tonight?” Officer Ross Jessop asked as he stepped up to the window of an SUV. After the conversation with driver Raymond Davis took a less friendly turn, Jessop asked, “How much have you had to drink tonight?” “Plenty,” Davis replied. Seconds later he pointed a revolver out

the window, fired and then drove away. Jessop, who wasn’t hit, shot 14 rounds at the vehicle, one of which killed Davis. A six- person coroner’s inquest jury later found the shooting justified. 7

But in Columbia, S.C., former State Police Lance Cpl. Sean Groubert has been charged with aggravated assault and battery after shooting Levar Jones during a traffic stop in September. That encounter, also captured on Groubert’s dashboard camera, made equally dramatic viewing. As the two men stood outside Jones’ SUV at a gas station,

Groubert said, “Your license, please.” Jones immediately turned and leaned far into his car. As soon as Jones straightened up, Groubert fired at least four shots in rapid succession. Jones, on the ground, sounding stunned and in pain, yells,

“I just got my license! You said get my license!” 8

“Well, you dove head-first back into your car,” Groubert said. “I’m sorry,” said Jones, who survived the gunshot in his hip. 9

A year earlier, Groubert and his partner had been shot at by a man in an incident that also began as a routine traffic stop. The two officers, who returned the man’s fire, wounding him, received com- mendations for valor for their actions during the confrontation. 10

Referring to the September shooting of Jones, Chuck Can- terbury, president of the Fraternal Order of Police union and a retired Conway, S.C., police officer, says, “The guy did make a quick turn and go into the car.” Noting that Groubert had

Police Face Danger in Everyday Situations Even routine traffic stops can suddenly turn deadly.

Dec. 12, 2014 1047www.cqresearcher.com

such as training, helping to transport suspected drug smugglers and lending equipment and personnel, according to the nonpartisan Government Ac- countability Office (GAO), then known as the General Accounting Office. 60

During the Reagan administration, Congress brought military and police work into closer quarters. The Military Cooperation With Law Enforcement Act of 1981 ordered the armed forces to track suspected smugglers on sea and

in the air and to open military intel- ligence files to police departments. 61

The pace of military aid and equip- ment transfers to law enforcement in- creased in the ensuing years. In 1989, Congress authorized the Defense De- partment to fund state National Guard drug enforcement programs. And law enforcement agencies at all levels, in- cluding federal, could take “counter- drug” training at National Guard schools. Defense spending on such

support services totaled $30 million in 1996-98. 62

The military established a commu- nications network for police in Al- abama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mis- sissippi to exchange and analyze counterdrug intelligence. It also pro- vided $96 million in technology and equipment to state and local agencies; the equipment included cryptological, night-vision and chemical analysis de- vices and instruments. 63

come under fire before, he added, “If you’ve not been in a situation where someone pulled a gun on you . . . I will never second-guess him.” But David Klinger, a professor of criminal justice at the Uni-

versity of Missouri-St. Louis, said after the shooting that it could have been avoided if Groubert had not immediately demanded the license, but asked, “Do you have a driver’s license?” At that point, Jones could have said he did, and it was in his car. “Then you can say, ‘OK, sure, what I want you to do is slowly reach into the vehicle. . . . And then it’s not a big issue.” 11

As in many other police-citizen encounters that end badly, race was part of the discussion. Groubert (who was fired and charged with aggravated assault and battery) is white and Jones is black. 12

Gloria Browne-Marshall, a constitutional law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said, “It was almost as though the officer wanted to stop the man, anyway found a reason to stop him.” (Groubert had said he stopped Jones for not wearing a seatbelt, but Jones said he removed it because he was pulling into the gas station.) “Deadly force is . . . happening when there’s an African-American male.” 13

Leroy Smith, director of the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, called the shooting an “isolated incident.” South Carolina State Rep. Joe Neal, former chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said the criminal charge against Groubert would lessen African-American anger over the shooting. “This is a good exercise in how the system can work,” he said. 14

— Peter Katel

1 “Affidavit of Probable Cause,” Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pike County, Oct. 8, 2014, Docket Number CR-207-14, http://tinyurl.com/mcmmbyc. 2 Ibid. 3 “Eric Frein, Accused Killer of Pennsylvania Trooper, Arrested Using Slain Officer’s Handcuffs,” CNN Wire, Oct. 30, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ltgknn2. 4 Quoted in Pamela Lehman and Laurie Mason Schroeder, “Eric Frein in letter to mom and dad calls for ‘revolution,’ ” Morning Call, Nov. 13, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mb9n29q.

5 “Preliminary 2014 Law Enforcement Officer Fatalities,” “Officer Deaths by Year,” National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, updated regularly, http://tinyurl.com/2b7co8f. 6 Quoted in Crawford Coates, “Policing at the Level of Instinct,” Calibre Press, Sept. 30, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/oa534bd. 7 “Montana Officer Under Fire at Traffic Stop,” LawOfficer, May 24, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/n5d92rn; Perry Backus, “Hamilton officer cleared in fatal shooting during January traffic stop,” Missoulian, April 14, 2010, http:// tinyurl.com/oeh75ob. 8 John Monk, “Video Released: SC trooper charged with felony shooting at traffic stop over seat belt violation,” The Charlotte Observer, Sept. 25, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/l5n86qd. 9 Ibid. 10 Jason Hanna, Martin Savidge and John Murgatroyd, “Video shows trooper shooting unarmed man, South Carolina police say,” CNN, Sept. 26, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/k8tyvs5. 11 “Transcript: Taking A Close Look at America’s Police Force,” WBUR, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, Oct. 1, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ljmq7x7. 12 John Monk, “Video Released: SC trooper charged with felony in shooting at traffic stop over seat belt violation,” The Charlotte Observer, Sept. 25, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mwberxs. 13 “Transcript: . . .,” op. cit. 14 Quoted in ibid.; Cliff Leblanc, “Officials’ silence on trooper shooting fuels anger, suspicion, demands for accounting,” The State, Sept. 9, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/lolqp6b.

Eric Frein has been charged in the death of a Pennsylvania State Trooper last Sept. 12 in an ambush that underscored the daily risks faced by police. Frein was captured after a 48-day manhunt.

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1048 CQ Researcher

Drawing Fire

In the 1990s, military-style law en-forcement operations became more controversial, particularly after two high- profile incidents — one in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and one in Waco, Texas — in- volving federal agents. The first incident involved a siege

on the property of right-wing survivalist Randy Weaver, who was indicted in 1991 on a federal firearms charge after he refused to become an informant in a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) investigation of a white supremacist group. 64

In 1992 federal agents were watching Weaver’s property in a rural area of Idaho known as Ruby Ridge. After Weaver’s dogs began barking a gunfight broke out in which a deputy marshal and Weaver’s 14-year-old son were killed. FBI snipers wounded a friend of Weaver’s and killed Weaver’s wife, who was inside the cabin. 65 A Justice Department investigation later conclud- ed that the rules of engagement guiding the snipers were unconstitutional. 66

The following year, an ATF attempt to serve an arrest warrant on a compound near Waco, Texas, occupied by the Branch Davidian religious sect led to a gunfight in which four agents were killed, 16 were wounded and an unknown number of compound residents were wounded or killed. A subsequent 51-day siege ended after Attorney General Janet Reno authorized the FBI to fire tear gas into the compound. The Branch Davidians responded by setting fires within the property, which eventually killed most of the 75 people inside, according to the Justice Department and some fire consultants. 67

Six years later the FBI revealed that it had fired explosive, “pyrotechnic” tear gas rounds, whose hot canisters can cause fires, into the compound during the final assault. But an independent follow-up report said those munitions did not start the fatal fires. 68

POLICE TACTICS

Citizen Anger Police in Berkeley, Calif., clash with protesters on the fourth night of demonstrations sparked by recent grand jury decisions in police- involved deaths of African-American males (top). On Dec. 6, a man demands justice during the funeral service for Akai Gurley, an unarmed 28-year-old African-American man shot to death in a dark stairwell of a Brooklyn housing development by a rookie Asian-American police officer on patrol. He said his gun discharged unintentionally (bottom). Outrage spread across the political spectrum when a New York grand jury did not hand up an indictment in the death of cigarette seller Eric Garner, who was videotaped being wrestled to the ground by police officers and held in a chokehold. Calling the non-indictment “totally incomprehensible,” conservative Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News, “The guy actually said, ‘I can’t breathe.’ ”

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That early instance of the use of military-style munitions followed a national lesson in the power of civilian technology. In 1991, a man with a videotape camera recorded the furious beating of a Los Angeles motorist who had tried to flee officers after being stopped for driving about 100 mph. Rodney King, the man who fled and was caught, was kicked, hit with batons and fired on with a Taser, in vivid footage replayed endlessly on television. 69

Four officers were indicted in con- nection with the beating and their trial moved to the predominantly white town of Simi Valley. In 1992, three were acquitted, and the jury deadlocked on the fourth. That decision set off five days of riots and looting in South Los Angeles in which more than 60 people died, 10 of them shot by law enforcement officers, and the others vic- tims of rioters and of riot-related events such as trying to put out a rioter-caused fire, or a traffic accident at an intersection whose lights had failed. 70

Later that year, a federal grand jury indicted the four officers for violating King’s civil rights. Two were acquitted; the other two were convicted at trial and sentenced to 30 months in prison. In a civil trial, a federal court awarded King $3.8 million in compensatory dam- ages from the city of Los Angeles. 71

The 1990s also saw cooperation between the military and the police become formalized, especially in coun- terdrug activities. In the 1990-91 Defense Authorization Act, later continued until 1996, Congress authorized transfers of excess military gear — including loaned pistols and rifles and ammunition and gifts of non-military equipment — to state and federal agencies for drug en- forcement. 72

Meanwhile, the Justice and Defense departments in 1994 established a tech- nology-sharing program. 73 The Na- tional Institute of Justice cited several reasons for the deal — one was that local law enforcement agencies needed

the help to keep up with criminals and drug smugglers, who themselves were increasingly getting their hands on military gear. “Narcotics traffickers and smugglers use bulletproof vests, electro-optic devices that enable them to see at night and semiautomatic and even automatic weapons,” making the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement all the more necessary, the institute concluded. 74

In 1997 Congress reauthorized the surplus equipment transfer system — now renamed the 1033 program — and removed the requirement that the equip- ment be used only in drug enforcement. However, Congress said it preferred that the gear be used for counterterrorism and antidrug activities. 75

During the same period, the Clinton administration sent American troops on peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo, with orders to limit harm to civilians and property. As a result, the armed forces developed an interest in nonlethal weapons, leading to production of the flash-bang grenades that SWAT teams now use. 76

New Tensions

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 — thefirst mass-casualty terrorist strike by a foreign organization in the United States — marked an entirely new de- velopment in relations between Amer- ican police and citizens. In the after- math police departments nationwide, prompted by the federal government,

added counterterrorism to their re- sponsibilities. “The continued threat of terrorism

has thrust domestic preparedness oblig- ations to the very top of the law en- forcement agenda,” a 2005 State Depart- ment report concluded. “This capacity must be considered . . . a staple of law enforcement operations.” 77 The Home- land Security Department began providing grants to local police departments for antiterrorism equipment and training. By fiscal 2014, the program was totaling nearly $2 billion a year. 78

Meanwhile, one theoretically nonlethal weapon developed under a Defense- Justice program — flash-bang grenades

SWAT team members prepare to arrest suspects believed to be armed in a house in Wichita, Kan., on Jan. 9, 2013. Critics of SWAT teams say they are overused, mostly to serve search and arrest warrants. But supporters say heavily armed SWAT teams are necessary because of the nation’s widespread gun ownership.

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POLICE TACTICS

— was proving problematic in civilian use. Donald Wilkes Jr., a law professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, compiled — using 2003 Appellate Court decisions and media reports — a list of 39 incidents dating back to 1984 involving injuries and death from these grenades in SWAT raids. 79

Three other developments after 9/11 have influenced the debate over police strategy and tactics: • A large increase in the number

of prison inmates since the 1980s has prompted growing criticism of manda-

tory sentencing laws, especially for nonviolent drug crimes. 80

• The emergence of digital video technology, the proliferation of smart- phones and security cameras and the rise of social media have led to a spate of videos posted online depicting sometimes deadly police-citizen con- frontations. 81

• A growing number of “active shoot- er” events in schools and public places has made police departments of all sizes aware of the need to be able to

quickly respond to sudden attacks that threaten large numbers of lives. 82

In the United States, images of police in tactical uniforms, carrying automatic rifles, became common in coverage, such as in the response to a 2012 mas- sacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and in the manhunt that followed a 2013 bombing during the Boston Marathon. At the same time, controversy con-

tinued to grow over police conduct in minority communities. In a big-city elec- tion that received extensive coverage

nationwide, liberal Bill de Blasio was elected mayor of New York, in part because he attacked the police depart- ment’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” tac- tics, which disproportionately affect black and Latino young men, according to evidence from police data used by U.S. District Judge Scheindlin in ruling that the application of the stop-and- frisk program — though not the tactic itself — was unconstitutional. “The city’s highest officials have

turned a blind eye to the evidence

that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner,” she wrote in her decision. 83

By the time de Blasio took office, use of the tactic had begun to fade, The New York Times reported in a data analysis. Police reported 33,699 stops in the second half of 2013 — less than 10 percent of the 337,410 recorded in the first half of 2012. But the videotaped death of cigarette seller Garner in an apparent police chokehold indicated to many that questionable police conduct didn’t end with de Blasio’s election. 84

Police behavior is also a major factor in other cities. The Obama adminis- tration’s Justice Department has opened more than two dozen investigations into possible civil rights violations by police departments in recent years after questions arose about whether police resort to force unnecessarily. (See “Cur- rent Situation,” p. 1052.) 85

The crucial event touching off the recent national debate over police tactics occurred Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo., when then-Officer Wilson shot Brown during a violent street confrontation. 86 By all accounts, the conflict began inside Wil- son’s patrol vehicle and continued with both men outside the car. According to conflicting accounts, Brown was either charging the officer or raising his arms in surrender. 87

The latter account gave rise to the widely adopted slogan and arm gesture of protesters in Ferguson and elsewhere: “Hands up — don’t shoot.” 88

Brown’s death set off weeks of street protests in Ferguson, including looting and vandalism by a minority of demon- strators, as well as tear gas and rubber bullets from police. As conflict worsened between police outfitted with military garb and equipment and increasingly bitter and angry demonstrators, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon put Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson in charge of the law enforcement response in Fer- guson. Johnson, an African-American, set a new tone by marching with

Continued on p. 1052

Critics see the use of Pentagon equipment, such as this mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Sanford, Maine, as unnecessary, especially by small police departments. But supporters say the vehicles serve many purposes, including disaster relief. In the past eight years, the Defense Department has distributed more than $1.5 billion worth of surplus equipment to local police, mainly

vehicles, aircraft and communications and detection equipment.

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ar l D

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At Issue: Are U.S. police departments becoming dangerously militarized?yes

yes PETER B. KRASKA PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF JUSTICE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN KENTUCKY

FROM WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, SEPT. 9, 2014

t he research I’ve been conducting, since 1989, has docu-mented quantitatively and qualitatively the steady and cer-tain march of U.S. civilian policing down the militarization continuum — culturally, materially, operationally and organizationally. This is not to imply that all police — nearly 20,000 unique depart- ments — are heading in this direction. But the . . . evidence demonstrates a troubling and highly consequential overall trend. What we saw played out in Ferguson was the application

of a very common mindset, style of uniform and appearance and weaponry, used every day in the homes of private resi- dences during SWAT raids — some departments conducting as many as 500 of these a year. Only 20 years ago, forced investigative searches of private

residences, using the military special-operations model employed during hostage rescues, was almost unheard of and would have been considered an extreme and unacceptable police tactic. It is critical to recognize that these are not forced-reaction situations necessitating use-of-force specialists; instead they are the result of police departments choosing to use an extreme and highly dangerous tactic, not for terrorists or hostage-takers, but for small-time drug possessors and dealers. Of course a militarized response is sometimes necessary

and even unavoidable if done in self defense or to protect lives in imminent danger. The bulk of U.S. SWAT activity . . ., however, constitute a proactive approach. Numerous depart- ments are choosing, based no doubt to an extent on political pressures, to generate on their own initiative high-risk events. I also learned that the paramilitary culture associated with

SWAT teams is highly appealing to a certain segment of civilian police. . . . As with special-operations soldiers . . ., these units’ members saw themselves as the elite police, involved in real crime-fighting and danger. A large network of for-profit training, weapons and equipment suppliers heavily promotes paramilitary culture at police shows, in police magazine advertisements and in training programs sponsored by gun manufacturers. . . . The “military special operations” culture — characterized by a distinct techno-warrior garb, heavy weaponry, sophisticated technology, hyper-masculinity and dangerous function — was nothing less than intoxicating for its participants. Military gear and garb changes and reinforces a war-fighting

mentality among civilian police, where marginalized populations become the enemy and the police perceive of themselves as the thin blue line between order and chaos that can only be controlled through military-model power.no

CHARLES “SID” HEAL RETIRED COMMANDER, SPECIAL ENFORCE- MENT BUREAU, LOS ANGELES SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT; RETIRED U.S. MARINE CORPS CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, DECEMBER 2014

t he allegation of militarization of U.S. police departmentsignores the extremely diversified and highly segmented na-ture of local law enforcement. Each of the nearly 18,000 local agencies is independent and governed only by the laws of the land and the communities they serve. Even the most wide- spread and notorious examples fail to reflect the attitudes of the law enforcement community at large. How does equipment or training or appearance make our

protectors dangerous? Weapons and equipment are inanimate objects. Complaints that they are too “militaristic” in appearance is like complaining a welder’s helmet is ugly or atrocious. All workers are entitled to the tools and protective gear needed for the hazards they confront. The so-called 1033 program for providing surplus equip-

ment to law enforcement agencies is periodically reviewed, but the hyperbole and mischaracterizations used to challenge it obfuscate meaningful scrutiny. Lack of availability of essen- tial equipment from military sources will require replacement through costly civilian manufacturers. Many of the criticisms that drive the current controversy

were first expressed by law enforcement. Corrective measures should be based on measurable attributes rather than biased perceptions to avoid the narrow-minded “baby and the bath- water” demands suggested by extremists. The counter-terrorist mission thrust upon domestic law en-

forcement as a result of the 9/11 attacks was neither sought nor welcomed. Furthermore, this new responsibility was “in addition to” and not “instead of.” The law enforcement and se- curity resources required by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security specifies weapons, equipment and protective clothing that is basically identical to that required by military organiza- tions. Failing to provide these because of their appearance or origin is both abhorrent and stupid. The tools used to fight the “war on crime” are inadequate to fight the “war on terrorism.” The use of SWAT teams to serve high-risk warrants is not

based on race, culture or type of crime but rather dangerous criminal behaviors. Criminals and terrorists have increasingly equipped themselves with high-powered weapons, explosive devices and protective armor and enjoy the advantages pro- vided by choosing the time, location and circumstances for their nefarious activities. The self-appointed carpers who over- simplify and ignore the perilous realities of underestimating adversaries have been bereft of viable alternatives.

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demonstrators, dressed in his standard uni- form — no combat fatigues or helmet. “We are going to have a different

approach and have the approach that we’re in this together,” he said. 89

CURRENT SITUATION

Stemming the Flow

As Congress rushes to finish itsyear-end work before the Christ- mas recess, efforts in both chambers to restrict — though not end — the flow of military equipment to police departments remain on the table. Obama entered the fray in early

December, announcing that he would issue an executive order designed to ensure that the 1033 program is “trans- parent.” The order will also be designed

“to make sure that we’re not building a militarized culture inside our local law enforcement.” 90

In Congress, even in a highly po- larized political environment, bipartisan efforts are emerging to put more con-

trols on the program. In the House, Democrat Hank Johnson of Georgia and Republican Raul Labrador of Idaho are pushing their Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014, which would limit the kinds of equipment the Pen- tagon can give or lend to law enforce- ment agencies. Labrador said the 1033 program was “introducing a military model of overwhelming force in our cities and towns.” 91

In case the legislation doesn’t survive the lame-duck congressional session, Johnson asked the heads of the Armed Services committees in both chambers for a moratorium on transfers of some Pentagon equipment, saying Congress needs to “press pause . . . and revisit the merits of a militarized America.” 92

The bill would block transfer of what the sponsors called high-caliber weapons,

grenade launchers, armed drones, ar- mored vehicles and grenades or other explosives. Some of this material may already be blocked for police use. Current law, for instance, restricts weapons of more than 7.62 mm caliber, such as the AK-47 assault rifle. 93

And the bill would end a require- ment that police departments use De- fense Department equipment within one year of receiving it. In the legislators’ view, that encourages departments to use the gear inappropriately. In the Senate, which will turn to Re-

publican control next year, the sponsor of an identically titled bill on 1033 is Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican. In a September hearing on the 1033 pro- gram he said: “Our Founders saw no role for the federal government in state and local police forces. We’re on dangerous ground of undermining the very principles that built the country.” 94

Troubled Cities

ANew York grand jury’s decision onDec. 3 not to indict the police officer whose chokehold led to cigarette seller Garner’s death set off the second wave of autumn protests over police conduct. “I can’t breathe,” marchers chanted

in New York, echoing Garner’s final words, captured on cellphone video. Demonstrators also took to the streets in Oakland and Los Angeles, Calif., following the grand jury’s no-indictment of Officer Daniel Pantaleo. 95

In response, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a Justice Department investigation of the Garner case. And Mayor de Blasio announced a police retraining program, including steps to de-escalate street confrontations. 96

Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association union said officers felt that the mayor had thrown them “under the bus.” The mayor didn’t say, Lynch added, “that you cannot resist arrest.” 97 In the video Garner is seen loudly complaining to

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Continued from p. 1050

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder embraces Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 20. Holder went to the troubled community to oversee the federal government’s investigation into the shooting of

18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer on Aug. 9. Johnson was widely credited with trying to defuse tensions through non-confrontational negotiations with protesters.

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police about harassment, but never ac- tively resists arrest. However, the facts of Garner’s death

as shown on video brought some law- and-order conservatives to side — un- like in the Ferguson case — with police critics. Charles Krauthammer, a con- servative Washington Post columnist, called Pantaleo’s non-indictment “totally incomprehensible.” Speaking on Fox News, Krauthammer said, “The guy ac- tually said, ‘I can’t breathe.’ ” 98

But not all conservatives agreed. Re- publican Rep. Peter King of New York, who represents Long Island, said that Garner died because he was obese and asthmatic. “The police had no reason to know he was in serious condition.” 99

In a reminder that growing tension over police actions isn’t limited to one or two places, Holder on the day fol- lowing the Garner non-indictment an- nounced that an 18-month investigation of the Cleveland police department found a pattern of “unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force” as well as African- Americans’ repeated claims that police were “verbally and physically aggressive toward them because of their race.” 100

Cleveland — the city where a po- liceman had shot and killed 12-year- old Rice in late November after the boy was seen in a park waving a toy replica of a gun — agreed to formulate a consent decree with Justice under which police would be supervised by an independent monitor. Albuquerque reached that kind of agreement earlier this year; and 14 other cities have signed consent decrees in recent years. 101

Developments in New York and Cleveland came the week after the St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson (now resigned from the police department) for Brown’s death in Ferguson. Immediately after county Prosecuting

Attorney Robert P. McCulloch an- nounced the decision in an evening press conference three days before Thanksgiving, protests broke out in downtown Ferguson. Although many

were peaceful, violence-inclined groups torched about 12 businesses and burned some police cars, and gunfire could be heard during the disturbances. 102

Street protests over the grand jury’s decision spread beyond Ferguson and St. Louis to Oakland and San Francisco,

Calif.; Chicago; New York; Washington, D.C.; and Seattle. Protesters demonstrated in shopping areas on “Black Friday,” with protesters chanting, “If we don’t get no justice, they don’t get no profits.” 103

OUTLOOK Re-engineering Police Culture

The debate over 21st-century policetactics should not be confused with a debate over police brutality, say critics of police adoption of military equip- ment, tactics and mentality. “In the ’60s and ’70s cops were more

brutal,” says former officer Moskos of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Cops are not allowed to beat people up like they used to. They may still have the attitude that ‘you’ve got to do this or else,’ but the ‘else’ is more limited. The rest of society has evolved; you would say it has progressed — if you’re on that side — to the point where

cops are not supposed to do that.” Former Seattle Police Chief Stamper

characterizes old-school brutality as “punitive force” and says that today, “much of what we see as excessive force or police brutality is a perversion of officer safety tactics.”

The idea that police live in constant danger reflects a drug war-spawned militarization that intensified after 9/11, Stamper says. “Many departments have treated low-level drug offenders as the enemy for so long that re-engineering the culture and structure of American policing is going to take generations.” Indeed, some police say, issues that

give rise to protests and debates over police conduct are rooted in generations- old problems — not police tactics. “It’s decades of racial disparity and economic disparity,” Jeff Roorda, business manager of the St. Louis Police Officers Associ- ation, told CBS News. “It’s not a problem with the police.” 104

Whether Justice Department inves- tigations and police retraining programs will lead to rapid changes in interactions between police and minority group members, particularly black men, is far from clear. In angry and despairing tones that were echoed in remarks from protesters, Ta-Nehisi Coates, an influ- ential essayist at The Atlantic magazine, wrote after the Ferguson non-indictment, “America does not really believe in non- violence, so much as it believes in order. . . . The death of all our Michael Browns

“We are going to have a different approach and have the approach that we’re in this together.” — Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald S. Johnson,

on how he would direct the law enforcement response

to the protests in Ferguson, Mo.

1054 CQ Researcher

at the hands of people who are sup- posed to protect them originates in a force more powerful than any president: American society itself.” 105

Nevertheless, in Los Angeles, whose police department was once considered heavy-handed with minority communi- ties, civil rights lawyer Constance Rice, who worked with the department in a reportedly successful reform program, argues that change is possible. Like other experts, she points to fear — rather than outright racism — as the key element in many police-citizen en- counters that turn violent. “I have known cops who haven’t had a racist bone in their bodies,” Rice told NPR. “They weren’t overtly racist. They weren’t con- sciously racist. But you know what they had in their minds that made them act out and beat a black suspect unwar- rantedly? They had fear. They were afraid of black men.” 106

On Dec. 9 the National Urban League, the 103-year-old African-American civil rights organization, issued a 10-point plan it said would help ease tensions between police and citizens, which in- cluded “comprehensive retraining” of all police, appointment of special pros- ecutors to investigate police misconduct and “widespread use” of dashboard and body cameras. 107

Apart from conflicts reflecting race and class divides, “active shooter” mass- killing incidents — some of the most dangerous and stressful incidents that police encounter — have been in- creasing in number since 2000, the FBI reported in September. And these are not likely to lessen officers’ sense of ever-present peril. 108

Former Los Angeles Sheriff’s De- partment commander Heal notes that ordinary patrol officers may be rushed into highly dangerous “active shooter” incidents that were once reserved for SWAT teams because the new police tactical doctrine is that waiting costs too many lives. “More than 90 percent of victims are killed in the first eight minutes,” Heal says.

And Fraternal Order of Police President Canterbury and other experts say military equipment, such as rifles and armored cars, are essential in dealing with mass shootings. The debate over the appro- priateness of this gear for police raises the danger, Canterbury says, of “not having the equipment because of the perception that that’s militarized policing.” On the nonmilitary equipment side,

as a consensus forms that all police should wear body cameras, other technological approaches to policing issues are in the pipeline. In Santa Cruz, Calif., police are testing a pistol-borne sensor designed to immediately send out an alert when an officer unholsters or fires his gun. 109

Data on how a weapon was used would help in post-incident investiga- tions. “If we know the gun was holstered, that could resolve a critical element in the courtroom,” Robert Stewart, CEO of Yardarm Technologies, a Capitola, Calif., start-up that is developing the sensor, told PCWorld magazine. 110

Technology may be moving more quickly than social changes that could lessen police-citizen tensions. But, wher- ever the debate over militarization takes policing, experts agree the spotlight that mobile digital recording has focused on police practices is permanent and growing. “In the age of social media,” says

Charles Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, “your actions get translated out there a thousandfold.”

Notes

1 John Eligon, “Anger, Hurt and Moments of Hope in Ferguson,” The New York Times, Aug. 20, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/l8ps8qz. 2 “Police militarization,” Google images, http://tinyurl.com/ppaqytz; “Sen. Thomas R. Carper Holds a Hearing on State and Local Law Enforcement Oversight, Panel 2,” Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Gov- ernmental Affairs, Sept. 9, 2014, CQ Transcrip- tions LLC.

3 “Tracking the Events in the Wake of Michael Brown’s Shooting,” The New York Times, Aug. 9, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/q3rwm5j; “Beavercreek Wal-Mart police shooting: Does video tell whole story?” The Associated Press (via Cleveland.com), Sept. 30, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/pqhj2fu; J. David Goodman and Al Baker, “Wave of Protests After Grand Jury Doesn’t Indict Officer in Eric Garner Chokehold Case,” The New York Times, Dec. 3, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/nlx3dax; Dan McKay, “Video: Camper turning from officers when shot,” Albuquerque Journal, March 22, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ltuzozq; Coleen Heild, “Polic- ing the police across the USA,” Albuquerque Journal, Nov. 9,2014, http://tinyurl.com/kp3h6h2. 4 “Remarks by the President After Meeting with Elected Officials, Community and Faith Leaders, and Law Enforcement Officials on How Communities and Law Enforcement Can Work Together to Build Trust to Strengthen Neighborhoods Across the Country,” The White House, Dec. 1, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/nj7t6yh. 5 “Sen. Thomas R. Carper. . .,” op. cit. 6 Written Testimony, Alan Estevez, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Ac- quisition Logistics and Technology, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Gov- ernmental Affairs, Sept. 9, 2014, http://tinyurl. com/n9flmo8; Daniel H. Else, “The ‘1033 Pro- gram,’ Department of Defense Support to Law Enforcement,” Congressional Research Service, Aug. 28, 2014, pp. 1-2, http://tinyurl.com/ l79spln; Arezou Rezvani, Jessica Pupovac, David Eads and Tyler Fisher, “MRAPs and Bayonets: What We Know About the Penta- gon’s 1033 Program,” NPR, Sept. 2, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/p3a4fqj; Alicia Parlapiano, “The Flow of Money and Equipment to Local Police,” The New York Times, updated Dec. 1, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/oeswx3y. 7 Ibid.; “Sen. Thomas R. Carper. . .,” op. cit. 8 Written Testimony, Alan Estevez, op. cit. 9 “Department of Justice and Department of Defense Joint Technology Program: Second Anniversary Report,” National Institute of Justice, February 1997, http://tinyurl.com/m6vgdwe. 10 Corey Mitchell, “Disquiet builds nationwide over police flash-bang use,” Minneapolis Star- Tribune, Dec. 31, 2011, http://tinyurl.com/kp gcjax. 11 “War Comes Home: The Excessive Milita- rization of American Policing,” American Civil Liberties Union, June 2014, p. 15, http://tiny url.com/lakqla6. 12 Quoted in Rob Moore, “Child burned by distraction device during raid,” AccessNorthGa.

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com, May 29, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mc3ac4j; David Beasley, “Georgia deputies cleared after stun grenade injured toddler,” Reuters, Oct. 6, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/p7padk2. 13 Nate Carlisle, et. al., “Ogden officer killed in firefight ‘doing exactly what he wanted to do,’ ” The Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 6, 2012, http:// tinyurl.com/mznsutg; Jessica Miller, “Police de- tail what went wrong in fatal shootout with Matthew David Stewart,” The Salt Lake Tribune, July 17, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mloq29u. 14 “War Comes Home. . .,” op. cit., pp. 27, 31. 15 John Bacon, “Pa. schools close in manhunt for accused cop killer,” USA Today, Oct. 21, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/kjmvgrv; Leslie Linthicum, “A bullet, a rescue and a long road home,” Albuquerque Journal, Dec. 22, 2013, http:// tinyurl.com/nuz9g6x; “10/26/13: Officer Luke McPeek and Others Shoot Christopher Chase,” Albuquerque Journal, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ p5z334c. 16 Peter B. Kraska, “Militarization and Policing — Its Relevance to 21st Century Police,” Polic- ing, 2007, http://tinyurl.com/nc3aazu. 17 “Commission on Special Weapons and Tac- tics (S.W.A.T.), Final Report,” Attorney General’s Commission on Special Weapons and Tactics, Sept. 10, 2002, p. 3, http://tinyurl.com/pvbzm9z. 18 Ibid., p. 1; Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces (2014), pp. 248-249. 19 Ibid., pp. 4, 7. Michael Rubinkam, “Trooper ambush suspect caught, death penalty eyed,” The Associated Press, Oct. 31, 2014, http://tiny url.com/of3cfps; Andrew Ba Tran and Luke Knox, “Map of school shootings from 2013- 14,” The Boston Globe, June 10, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/pywyqmr; “Boston Marathon Ter- ror Attack Fast Facts,” CNN, Nov. 1, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/q7ldwbc; Kraska testimony, op. cit. 20 “Sen. Thomas R. Carper. . .,” op. cit. 21 Debra Cassens Weiss, “SWAT-like raids for barber’s license checks violated Constitution, 11th Circuit says,” ABA Journal, Sept. 22, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mozr9nb. 22 “Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), Con- cepts and Issues Paper,” International Asso- ciation of Chiefs of Police, March 2011, http:// tinyurl.com/njfmadw. 23“Gun Ownership Trends and Demographics,” Pew Research Center, March 12, 2013, http:// tinyurl.com/q822p6y; “Gun homicides and gun ownership by country,” The Washington Post, Dec. 17, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/c53hytw. 24 Bob Parker, “How the North Hollywood Shootout Changed Patrol Arsenals,” Police Mag- azine, Feb. 28, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/mp

pn9w2; Rick Orlov, “North Hollywood shootout, 15 years later,” Los Angeles Daily News, Feb. 26, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/o9f2tg7. 25 Steve Bosh, “Survivors recount San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre after 30 years,” KUSI News, July 18, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/produ87. 26“Special Litigation Section Cases and Matters, Law Enforcement Agencies,” U.S. Justice De- partment, Civil Rights Division, http://tinyurl. com/lu76yt8. 27 Ryan Gabrielson, Ryann Grochowski Jones, Eric Sagara, “Deadly Force, in Black and White,” ProPublica, October 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ qfx6qmr. 28 “Quoted in William H. Freivogel, “How Many Police Kill Black Men? Without Database, We Can’t Know,” St. Louis Public Radio, Dec. 10, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/k3c85bb; Ibid.; Rob Barry and Coulter Jones, “Hundreds of Police Killings Are Uncounted in Federal Stats,” The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 3,2014, http://tiny url.com/kra7pqj. 29“Tracking the Events in the Wake of Michael Brown’s Shooting,” op. cit.; Paddock, Paras- candola and Siemaszko, op. cit.; J. David Goodman, “In Brooklyn, 2 Young Men, a Dark Stairwell and a Gunshot,” The New York Times, Nov. 23, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/opw75w9; Emma G. Fitzsimmons, “12-Year-Old Boy Dies After Police in Cleveland Shoot Him,” The New York Times, Nov. 23, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ opw75w9; “Beavercreek Wal-Mart police shoot- ing: Does video tell whole story?” The Associated Press (via Cleveland.com), Sept. 30, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/pqhj2fu. 30 “Remarks by the President at Congressional Black Caucus Awards Dinner,” The White House, Sept. 28, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/occq8f5. 31 “Sen. Thomas R. Carper. . .,” op. cit. 32 Quoted in Erik Badia and Corky Siemaszko, “Rev. Al Sharpton accuses Ferguson, Mo., police chief of ‘smear campaign’ against Michael Brown,” New York Daily News, Aug. 16, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/pqatdn8; Erik Eckholm, “Wit- ness Told Grand Jury That Michael Brown Charged at Darren Wilson, Prosecutor Says,” The New York Times, Nov. 24, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/ntyezrm; Trymaine Lee and Michele Richinick, “Police: Michael Brown stopped because he blocked traffic,” MSNBC, Aug. 15, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/leltynp. 33 “Homicide Watch Chicago,” Chicago Sun- Times, regularly updated, http://tinyurl.com/ nlsfr2z; Amy Sherman, “A look at statistics on black-on-black murders,” PolitiFact Florida, July 17, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/mhfw7f4. 34 Quoted in Steve Chapman, “Sharpton on

black-on-black crime,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 28, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/k8sbp64; Jamelle Bouie, “Actually Blacks Do Care About Black Crime,” Slate, Dec. 1, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ k7brpue. 35 “Broken Windows Policing,” Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, George Mason University, undated, http://tinyurl.com/koravg6. 36 Peter Moskos, Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District (2008). 37 Quoted in Michael B. Marois, “Body-Worn Cameras for Police Get Renewed Attention After Ferguson,” Bloomberg News, Nov. 25, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/n4on8lv. 38 “Remarks by the President. . .,” op. cit.; Mark Landler, “Obama Offers New Standards on Police Gear,” The New York Times, Dec. 1, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lyde4wh. 39 Katti Gray and Dean Schabner, “UC Davis Pepper Spraying: Cops Suspended,” ABC News, Nov. 20, 2011, http://tinyurl.com/7r9kk76; Matthew B. Stannard and Demian Bulwa, “BART shooting captured on video,” San Fran- cisco Chronicle, Jan. 7, 2009, http://tinyurl. com/bv89orh; Ryan Owens, “Cop’s ‘Heart Sank’ on Realizing Shots Fired at Minivan Full of Kids,” ABC News, Jan. 17, 2014, http://tinyurl. com/qe4wnct; Ryan Boetel, “APD detective who shot homeless camper James Boyd plan- ning to retire,” Albuquerque Journal, Nov. 18, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lb9mtjn; Josh Sanburn, “Behind the Video of Eric Garner’s Deadly Confrontation With New York Police,” Time, July 22, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/oh94f6v; Pat Reavy, “Body cam helps justify fatal South Salt Lake police shooting,” KSL.com, Sept. 30, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/q8z8pqn. 40 Michael D. White, “Police Officer Body- Worn Cameras: Assessing the Evidence,” Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Justice Department, 2014, p. 16, http://tinyurl.com/q87pdtu. 41 Quoted in Ian Lovett, “In California, a Champion for Police Cameras,” The New York Times, Aug. 21, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/k5mxafg. 42 Rocco Parascandola, “60 NYPD cops set to begin wearing body cameras in pilot pro- gram,” New York Daily News, Sept. 4, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/qgqohaf. 43 “Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Pro- gram: Recommendations and Lessons Learned,” Police Executive Research Forum, U.S. Justice Department, 2014, pp. 54-56, http://tinyurl. com/lxdg7ej. 44 “Findings of civil investigation,” U.S. Justice Department, April 10, 2014, http://tinyurl. com/n6bubpo; Gwyneth Doland, “Police body cameras didn’t provide accountability in New

1056 CQ Researcher

POLICE TACTICS

Mexico,” Al Jazeera America, April 16, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/l8gowe9. 45 Patrick Lohmann, “No video of Mary Hawkes shooting, APD says,” Albuquerque Journal, May 22, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/qzlorxz. 46 Quoted in Nicole Perez, “Officer who shot Mary Hawkes fired for insubordination,” Albu- querque Journal, Dec. 1, 2014, http://tinyurl. com/paatg2a. 47 “10 limitations of body cams you need to know for your protection,” Force Science Institute Ltd., undated, http://tinyurl.com/m94y3vw. 48 Ibid., pp. 5-6. 49 Maj. Gen. Timothy J. Lowenberg, “The Role of the National Guard in National Defense and Homeland Security,” National Guard As- sociation of the United States, undated, http:// tinyurl.com/qbmsnbd. 50 Ibid., p. 40. 51 “Department of Justice and Department of Defense Joint Technology Program: Second Anniversary Report,” National Institute of Justice, Department of Justice,” February 1977, p. 2, http://tinyurl.com/qyemysa. 52 Ibid.; Jeremy Peace, “Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90,” The New York Times, June 20, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ nlhzb3l. 53 Charles Doyle and Jennifer K. Elsea, “The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law,” Congressional Research Service, Aug. 16, 2012, pp. 35-36, http://tinyurl.com/l29a4ea. 54 Ibid., Balko, p. 62; “The UT Tower Shooting,” Texas Monthly, undated, http://tinyurl.com/ka ybz73. 55 Paul Clinton, “Daryl Gates and the origins of LAPD SWAT,” Police Magazine, April 16, 2010, http://tinyurl.com/q2d95ql; Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces (2013), pp. 76-80; and “144 Hours in August 1965,” Governor’s Com-

mission on the Los Angeles Riots, 1965, http:// tinyurl.com/3zab8bg. 56 Richard Nixon, “Special Message to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Con- trol, June 17, 1971,” The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, http://tinyurl.com/l56dh26. 57 Ibid. Also see Radley Balko, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces (2014), pp. 81-134. 58 Ibid., Balko; Clinton, op. cit., p. 2. 59 Balko, op. cit., pp. 116-125; “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing,” ACLU, June 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ lx56xmg; U.S. v. Leon, 488 U.S. 897 (1984), http://tinyurl.com/238nbgx. 60 Ronald F. Lauve, “Statement Before the Subcommittee on Crime, House Committee on the Judiciary on Military Cooperation With Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies,” General Accounting Office, July 28, 1983, http://tinyurl. com/ouckbgl. 61 Balko, op. cit., pp. 96-97, 145-146. 62“Crime Technology: Department of Defense Assistance to State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies,” U.S. General Accounting Office, (now Government Accountability Office), October 1999, pp. 3-5, http://tinyurl.com/o5tfgev. 63 Ibid., pp. 7-9. 64 “Department of Justice Report on Internal Review Regarding the Ruby Ridge Hostage Situation and Shootings by Law Enforcement Personnel,” U.S. Justice Department, 1994, Ex- ecutive Summary, http://tinyurl.com/p8q988z; Balko, op. cit., pp. 200-201. 65 Ibid., Balko. 66 Ibid., “Department of Justice.” 67 “Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas, February 28 to April 19, 1993, Executive Summary, http://tiny url.com/o3yaxp7; Jim Hoft, “Author: Hillary Clinton Ordered Attack on David Koresh’s Com-

pound in Waco, Texas,” Free Republic, March 4, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ouqak4k. 68“Final Report to the Deputy Attorney General Concerning the 1993 Confrontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex, Waco, Texas,” Special Coun- sel John C. Danforth, Nov. 8, 2000, p. 29, http://tinyurl.com/nm59o2h; Matt Alsdorf, “Waco Twofer: Pyrotechnic Tear Gas and Delta Force,” Slate, Sept. 2, 1999, http://tinyurl.com/ ceduvf8. 69 Jennifer Medina, “Rodney King Dies a 47,” The New York Times, June 17, 2012, http://tiny url.com/8xdbzgc. 70 Ibid., “Los Angeles riots: Remember the 63 people who died,” Los Angeles Times, April 26, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/ljb86rg; Linda Deutsch, “Rodney King’s Death: Reporter Remembers Trial That Sparked Riots,” The Associated Press, Aug. 18, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/n7a9fhl. 71 “Los Angeles Riots Fast Facts,” CNN, May 3, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/njj82eh. 72 Daniel H. Else, “The ‘1033 Program,’ ” op. cit., pp. 1-2. 73 “Department of Justice and Department of Defense Joint Technology,” op. cit., p. 1. 74 Ibid., pp. 5-6. 75 Else, op. cit. 76 “Department of Justice and Department of Defense Joint Technology,” op. cit., pp. 5, 11; “War Comes Home,” op. cit., pp. 2-3. 77 Lois M. Davis, et al., “Long-Term Effects of Law Enforcement’s Post-9/11 Focus on Coun- terterrorism and Homeland Security,” RAND Corp., 2010, p. xv, http://tinyurl.com/k3a2tas. 78 “DHS Announces Grant Allocations for Fiscal Year 2014 Preparedness Grants,” U.S. De- partment of Homeland Security, July 25, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lphyxtd; Alicia Parlapiano, “The Flow of Money and Equipment to Local Police,” The New York Times, updated Dec. 1, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/oeswx3y. 79 Donald E. Wilkes Jr., “Explosive Dynamic Entry,” Flagpole, July 20, 2003, http://tinyurl. com/qeqzxoq. 80 Lisa D. Moore and Amy Elkavich, “Who’s Using and Who’s Doing Time: Incarceration, the War on Drugs, and Public Health,” American Journal of Public Health, May, 2008, http://tiny url.com/mnu7awa; John Schmitt, Kris Warner, Sarika Gupta, “The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, June 2010, http://tinyurl.com/27yos76. 81 “Social Media and Tactical Considerations for Law Enforcement,” Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Justice Department and Police Executive Research Forum, 2013, http:// tinyurl.com/karmhqx.

About the Author Peter Katel is a CQ Researcher contributing writer who previously reported on Haiti and Latin America for Time and Newsweek and covered the Southwest for newspapers in New Mexico. He has received several journalism awards, in- cluding the Bartolomé Mitre Award for coverage of drug traf- ficking from the Inter-American Press Association. He holds an A.B. in university studies from the University of New Mexico. His recent reports include “Mexico’s Future” and “U.S. Global Engagement.”

Dec. 12, 2014 1057www.cqresearcher.com

82 Tracy L. Frazzano and G. Matthew Snyder, “Hybrid Targeted Violence: Challenging Con- ventional ‘Active Shooter’ Response Strategies,” Homeland Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Se- curity, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/oeoj7rj. 83 Quoted in Joseph Goldstein, “Judge Rejects New York’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy,” The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/ m826bvo; Michael Barbaro and David W. Chen, “De Blasio Is Elected New York City Mayor in Landslide,” The New York Times, Nov. 5, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/ozbnwsu. 84 Mike Bostock and Ford Fessenden, “ ‘Stop- and-Frisk’ Is All but Gone From New York,” The New York Times, Sept. 19, 2014, http://tiny url.com/p7qma2a. 85 “Police Reform and Accountability Accom- plishments Under Attorney General Eric Hold- er,” U.S. Justice Department, Dec. 4, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ocf4w5a. 86 Rachel Clarke and Christopher Lett, “What happened when Michael Brown met Officer Darren Wilson,” CNN, Nov. 11, 2014, http://tiny url.com/opdowzu. 87 Ibid. 88Matt Pearce, “Protesters use hands-up gesture defiantly after Michael Brown shooting,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 12, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ ku56bs6. 89 Quoted in Elahe Izadi and Wesley Lowery, “Meet the Missouri Highway State Patrol captain who has taken over in Ferguson,” The Wash- ington Post, Aug. 15, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ nvscevv. 90 “Remarks by the President,” op. cit. 91 Press release, “Reps. Johnson, Labrador in- troduce bill to de-militarize police,” Website of Rep. Hank Johnson, Sept. 16, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/myz4s4p. 92 Ibid. 93“M14 7.62mm Rifle,” Federation of American Scientists, Military Analysis Network, updated Feb. 22, 2000, http://tinyurl.com/pghfqdm; Writ- ten Testimony, Alan Estevez, op. cit., pp. 3-4. 94 “Sen. Thomas R. Carper Holds a Hearing,” op. cit. 95 Vivian Yee, “ ‘I Can’t Breathe,’ Is Echoed in Voices of Fury and Despair,” The New York Times, Dec. 3, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ndm9c3k; Bill Chapell, “Protests Spread in New York and Beyond Over Eric Garner Case,” NPR, Dec. 3, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/pqj72rs. 96 Mollie Reilly, “Justice Department to Inves- tigate Eric Garner’s Death,” The Huffington Post, Dec. 3, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lngbeqn; Marc Santora, “Mayor de Blasio Calls for Re-

training of New York Police Dept.,” The New York Times, Dec. 4, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ o7uywau. 97 Quoted in Santora, ibid. 98 Quoted in Karen Tumulty, “Ferguson, Staten Island: Similar events bring very different re- action,” The Washington Post, Dec. 4, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mw9uykk. 99 Quoted in Nia-Malika Henderson, “Peter King blames asthma and obesity for Eric Garner’s death. That’s a problem for the GOP,” The Washington Post, Dec. 4, 2014, http://tinyurl. com/mf6qcc9. 100 “Investigation of the Cleveland Division of Police,” U.S. Department of Justice, Dec. 4, 2014, pp. 3, 49, http://tinyurl.com/keuaqgz. 101 Richard A. Oppel Jr., “Cleveland Police Abuse Pattern Cited by Justice Department,” The New York Times, Dec. 4, 2014, http:// tinyurl.com/mm97l4h; “Police Reform and Ac- countability Accomplishments Under Attorney General Eric Holder,” U.S. Justice Department, Dec. 4, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ocf4w5a. 102 Ellen Wulfhorst, Daniel Wallis and Edward McAllister, “More troops deployed in Ferguson to guard against fresh riots,” Reuters, Nov. 25,

2014, http://tinyurl.com/k5drrwa. 103 Quoted in John Eligon, “Protesters United Against Ferguson Decision, but Challenged in Unity,” The New York Times, Nov. 28, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/m7sag4f. 104 Quoted in Matt Apuzzo, “Past Remarks by Loretta Lynch, Attorney General Nominee, Offer Insight on Race Issues,” The New York Times, Dec. 2, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mykozju. 105Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Barack Obama, Ferguson, and the Evidence of Things Unsaid,” The At- lantic, Nov. 26, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/mtjyjqz. 106 Quoted in “Civil Rights Attorney On How She Built Trust With Police,” NPR, Dec. 5, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/l3s86oc. 107 “10-Point Justice Plan: National urban League Police Reform and Accountability Rec- ommendations,” National Urban League, De- cember 2014, http://tinyurl.com/m2j2k7u. 108 “FBI Releases Study on Active Shooter In- cidents,” FBI, Sept. 24, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ nfm5pww. 109 Zach Miners, “Startup arms cops with Internet-connected ‘smart’ guns,” PCWorld, Oct. 27, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lmwmbht. 110 Quoted in ibid.

FOR MORE INFORMATION American Civil Liberties Union, 125 Broad St., New York, NY 10004; 212-549- 2500; http://tinyurl.com/kghjobr. The rights-advocacy organization has published a series of detailed reports alleging police misconduct nationally and in several states and cities.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, 8730 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910; 301-565-0807; http://tinyurl.com/3ndoyw. The U.S.-based international orga- nization of retired police officers, prosecutors and judges advocates legalizing and regulating drug use.

National Fraternal Order of Police, 701 Marriott Dr., Nashville, TN 37214; 615- 399-0900; http://tinyurl.com/omy84xb. The nation’s major police union advocates for its members on all issues affecting police safety and benefits.

National Tactical Officers Association, http://tinyurl.com/lrognsr. The main or- ganization for SWAT team members offers training in crisis negotiation, hostage rescue, sniper shooting and other situations in which SWAT teams are mobilized.

Police Executive Research Forum, 1120 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036; 202-466-7820; http://tinyurl.com/kytrfy9. The think tank and consultancy rec- ommends policies designed to improve police-community relations.

Police Foundation, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036; 202- 833-1460; http://tinyurl.com/q85srua. Affiliated with three universities in the United States and United Kingdom, the foundation researches new developments affecting police departments and proposes strategies to deal with them.

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20530; 202-514-6255; http://tinyurl.com/lu76yt8. The division’s Special Litigation Section has conducted detailed investigations and negotiated settlements — all available on the section’s website — on police misconduct in numerous cities.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

1058 CQ Researcher

Selected Sources

Bibliography Books

Balko, Radley, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces, PublicAffairs, 2014. A longtime critic of police tactics traces hardening of police methods to the spread of SWAT teams.

McCoy, Candace, ed., Holding Police Accountable, Urban Institute Press, 2010. A group of academics, including two former police officers, ex- amine changes in laws and procedures guiding police conduct.

Moskos, Peter, Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District, Princeton University Press, 2008. A former police officer who was trained as a sociologist examines his own and colleagues’ actions and attitudes in policing poor, African-American neighborhoods.

Stamper, Norm, Breaking Ranks: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing, Nation Books, 2005. A career police officer who rose to Seattle police chief criticizes drug laws and drug enforcement.

Articles

Barrett, Devlin, “Attorney General Eric Holder Urges Broad Review of Police Tactics,”The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/nunrumb. The outgoing Justice Department chief calls for a thorough examination of police departments’ policies and actions.

Devaney, Tim, “Senators blast DOD program that ‘militarized police,’ ”The Hill, Sept. 9, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/lxns2q6. Bipartisan criticism erupted at a Senate committee hearing on transfers to police departments of military gear.

Heal, Charles“Sid,” “Swarming,”The Tactical Edge, Spring 2011, http://tinyurl.com/pke2bjb. A former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department commander analyzes a tactic in which police in a sudden emergency rush a shooter from several directions — a method Heal calls a departure from the military approach.

Lind, Dara, “How do police departments train cops to use force?,” Vox, Sept. 5, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/ncfnjjn. A justice system specialist details how officers are taught when and when not to shoot.

McKay, Dan, “Video: Camper turning from officers when shot,” Albuquerque Journal, March 22, 2014, http://tiny url.com/ltuzozq. A video of police shooting to death a mentally disturbed man intensified criticism of an already troubled Albuquerque, N.M., police department.

Moore, Rob, “Child burned by distraction device during raid,” Access North Georgia, May 29, 2014, http://tiny url.com/mc3ac4j. A county sheriff in charge of a disastrous SWAT raid in which an infant was gravely wounded by a flash-bang grenade says his men had had no information a child was in the house but defends the operation as based on available intelligence.

Nehring, Abbie, “ ‘Less Lethal’ Flash-Bangs Used in Ferguson Leave Some Feeling the Burn,”ProPublica, Aug. 22, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/olovoph. A journalist reports being burned by a flash-bang grenade used against demonstrators in Ferguson, Mo., and experts debate their use as crowd-control devices.

Proctor, Jeff, “Boyd shooter: ‘Welcome to ROP; mistakes now cease to exist,’ ”KRQE News, Oct. 7, 2014, http://tinyurl. com/pqmhewu. An investigative reporter recounts the little-known story of a specialized Albuquerque, N.M., Police Department unit — now disbanded — whose logo was a hangman’s noose.

Swaine, Jon, “Doubts cast on witness’s account of black man killed by police in Walmart,” The Guardian, Sept. 7, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/k4g3gvg. A U.S. correspondent for a London-based newspaper probes the evidence in a police shooting that left an unarmed man dead in a Walmart store in Beavercreek, Ohio, after picking up a BB rifle from a shelf and walking around the store with it.

Reports and Studies

Else, Daniel H., “The ‘1033 Program,’ Department of Defense Support to Law Enforcement,”Congressional Research Ser- vice, Aug. 28, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/l79spln. A CRS specialist examines the requirements governing military equipment transfers to police.

“Police Under Attack: A Police Foundation Review of the Christopher Dorner Incident,” Police Foundation, 2013, http://tinyurl.com/letwcga. A team of career police officers working for a think tank analyzes and draws lessons from the 2013 manhunt for an ex-Los Angeles Police Department officer and U.S. Navy veteran who killed the daughter of a former superior, a police officer and a sheriff’s deputy. Police shot at, but didn’t kill, three civilians during the search.

“War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of Amer- ican Policing,” American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), June 2014, http://tinyurl.com/nneqyrk. The ACLU analyzes data from a small sample of police de- partments to conclude that U.S. police tactics and equipment are overly militarized.

Dec. 12, 2014 1059www.cqresearcher.com

Cameras

Brustein, Joshua, “How One Guy Is Using the Law to Wreak Havoc Over Police Body Cams,” Bloomberg Busi- nessweek, Nov. 20, 2014, www.businessweek.com/articles/ 2014-11-20/how-one-guy-can-wreak-havoc-on-plans-for- police-body-cameras. An anonymous activist in Washington state is making large- scale public-records requests and posting police videos online in an effort to pressure police departments into making more videos from officers’ body cameras publicly available.

Miller, Nate, “Body-mounted cameras offer benefits, ques- tions for police, residents,” The Greeley (Colo.) Tribune, Sept. 2, 2014, www.greeleytribune.com/news/12776688- 113/cameras-officers-police-body. The Greeley (Colo.) Police Department is debating whether to equip its officers with body cameras.

Starkey, Jonathan, “Post-Ferguson, Del. police weigh body cameras,” The (Wilmington) Delaware News Journal, Dec. 1, 2014, www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/ 2014/11/30/ferguson-delaware-police-consider-body- cameras/19715761/. Delaware State Police officials are considering equipping all troopers with body cameras in light of the controversy surrounding the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.

Civilian Shootings

Healy, Jack, and Monica Davey, “Darren Wilson, Officer in Ferguson Shooting, Resigns From Police Dept.,” The New York Times, Nov. 29, 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/ 11/30/us/ferguson.html?_r=0. Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson (Mo.) Police De- partment resigned several days after a grand jury acquitted him in Michael Brown’s shooting death.

Johnson, Kevin, Meghan Hoyer and Brad Heath, “Local police involved in 400 killings per year,” USA Today, Aug. 15, 2014, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/ 2014/08/14/police-killings-data/14060357/. Nearly one-fourth of civilians killed by white police officers each year since 2005 were black, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but some crime experts say the data are incomplete.

Susman, Tina, and Maria La Ganga, “Police killing, beating of civilians raise issue of reasonable force,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 16, 2014, www.latimes.com/nation/la-na- police-prosecution-20141116-story.html#page=1. High-profile civilian killings by police highlight the challenge of balancing the use of “reasonable force” by police in pursuing suspects with protecting citizens from excessive force.

Militarization of Policing

Chokshi, Niraj, “School police across the country receive excess military weapons and gear,”The Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/ wp/2014/09/16/school-police-across-the-country-receive- excess-military-weapons-and-gear/. A review of data from more than 30 states shows at least 120 school systems and colleges have received military equip- ment from the Defense Department.

Johnson, Riley, “Police: No moratorium on military gear needed,”Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, Nov. 28, 2014, http:// journalstar.com/news/local/911/police-no-moratorium- on-military-gear-needed/article_49428ffa-6ab7-5002-a549- 401a22c13815.html. Nebraska police officials contend police departments are responsibly utilizing military equipment.

Neuman, Scott, “Ferguson Mayor: Police Will Recruit More Minorities,”NPR, Nov. 30, 2014, www.npr.org/blogs/ thetwo-way/2014/11/30/367548761/ferguson-largely- peaceful-after-officers-decision-to-quit. Ferguson, Mo., Mayor James Knowles said the city plans to create a civilian board to review police officers’ actions and recruit more black officers in an effort to properly reflect the town’s demographics.

Ostendorff, Jon, “Military gear comes with concerns for local police,”Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, Sept. 9, 2014, www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/09/03/ military-gear-comes-concerns-local-police/15036703/. Several police departments in eastern North Carolina have declined military equipment from the Defense Department.

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MLA STYLE Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher 2 Sept.

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APA STYLE Jost, K. (2011, September 2). Remembering 9/11. CQ Researcher,

9, 701-732.

CHICAGO STYLE Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher, September

2, 2011, 701-732.

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