Police Militarilisation (Essay Sample)

Police Militarization
< Professors name>
Police militarization is the process by which police forces increasingly use and apply military ideologies. Militarization involves arming, organizing, planning, training for and the use of force and threats of violence in solving problems and conflicts. Many countries in the world are adopting the trend of police militarization in various degrees. Police departments are increasingly using military equipment such assault weapons and armored personnel carriers and applying more aggressive policing styles.
The extent of police militarization can be best analyzed using the four dimensions of the military model. These four dimensions include; material, cultural, organizational and operational indicators (Kraska, 2007). Material indicators reveal the extent of the use of military weaponry, equipment, and advanced military technology in the police force. Cultural indicators show the extent in the use of martial language, military style of dressing and the application of military beliefs and values in the police force.
Operational indicators, on the other hand, depict the extent in which patterns of activity in the police force are modeled after the military in areas relating to intelligence, supervision, handling high-risk situations and so forth. Lastly, organizational indicators reveal the extent in the use of elite squads of officers, the use of martial agreements such as command and control centers and so forth in the police departments. The lower the indicator ranking, the lower the degree of militarization and vice versa.
The military can work together with the police in situations involving combat of terrorism, counterdrug operations, civil disturbances and so forth. The activities that are carried out by both the police and the military have a degree of criminal and terrorist activity. The military in such high-risk operations provides the intelligence and necessary weaponry when the condition escalates. They also carry out patrol operations in high-crime areas. Police, on the other hand, complement military efforts through their policing missions.
The SWAT team; a special branch of the police who are highly trained to deal with dangerous criminals. The team often responds to serious crimes such as hostage situations, drug trafficking, bank robberies and so forth, when regular police are unable to contain the situation. The SWAT team is usually heavily armed as compared to the regular police. They carry with them machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns and so forth. The team, however, retains the essential attributes of civilian police such as, not being allowed to kill discriminately (Kraska and Kappeler, 1997)
Paramilitary raids are necessary for hig...