More Dallas-Fort Worth police forces arming themselves with military-style equipment
Posted: 31 May 2009 11:52 AM PDT
More Dallas-Fort Worth police forces arming themselves with military-style equipment
To many people that vehicle — and others like it used by police departments across the country — will go unnoticed. The public seems to largely accept the use of military-type equipment, technology and tactics as not only appropriate but also necessary to fight crime and make communities more safe and secure.
Armored vehicles are used by law enforcement agencies in Fort Worth, Arlington and Bedford and at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, just to name a few. Some police departments have assault rifles, noise-flash devices and grenade launchers. Arlington even sought federal money for a drone aircraft.
But some criminal-justice experts are troubled by law enforcement agencies' growing use of military-style equipment. Rather than employ such equipment only in extreme situations, the critics say, their use is becoming commonplace, leading police to use unnecessary force and intimidating residents. For example, some cite an episode last year in which police used a battering ram to raid a Duncanville swingers club when no one answered a knock.
"We have been witnesses to a little-noticed but nonetheless momentous historical change — the traditional distinctions between military/police, war/law and internal/external security are rapidly blurring," said criminal justice professor Peter Kraska, of Eastern Kentucky University, in one on his studies on the militarization of police departments.
Local police officials note that growing populations, rising crime rates and more-lethal weapons available to criminals have forced officers to keep up. They also say they rely on training to make sure equipment is used appropriately.
"For years, there's always been a parallel between law enforcement and the military," said Bedford Police Chief David Flory, former director of training for the Texas Tactical Peace Officers Association. "Of course, the big difference is the rules of engagement. The military in Afghanistan or Iraq is dealing with warfare. We as officers have the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Penal Code that we must follow."
Growing use nationwide
Law enforcement agencies' use of military equipment began in Los Angeles during the race riots in the 1960s. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration supplied police with more military equipment for the war on drugs.
In 1994, the Defense Department authorized the transfer of military equipment and technology to state and local police.
Local police officials said two events later in the 1990s forced law enforcement agencies to bolster their equipment.
In the North Hollywood bank shootout in 1997, officers didn't have the firepower to match two heavily armed bank robbers dressed as commandos.
Police officials also said that the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, as well as other school shootings, proved that such violence could happen in smaller suburban cities. The two teenage shooters at Columbine were armed with military-style weapons and had made bombs.
After 9-11, more military-style equipment became available to local and state police from Homeland Security funds. North Richland Hills paid for its new armored vehicle through a state Homeland Security grant.
In recent months, more equipment has been purchased with federal stimulus funds. According to StimulusWatch.org, Arlington at one point requested $1.6 million in stimulus money for a mobile command unit, explosive entry program, armored vehicle and support vehicle, plus the unmanned drone for surveillance and security that StimulusWatch lists at $625,000.
Law enforcement experts estimate that more than 17,000 local and state police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Black Hawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision and rappelling gear.
But the military influence goes beyond that, to every aspect of law enforcement: Uniforms, insignias, language and command structures are essentially products of the military.
Advertisements in law enforcement magazines even tout the military background.
In the May issue of Police Magazine, an ad for a gas mask proclaims, "No other law enforcement gas mask has this military pedigree." It also says the mask has the "latest U.S. military technology."
Not without controversy
Debate on the use of military-style equipment by police has gone on for decades.
Several police officials said that the sophisticated military-style equipment is needed to protect the area's growing communities. Several Tarrant cities have nearly doubled in the past couple of decades.
And while major-crime rates fell across Texas and in most large Tarrant County cities last year, there were more major crimes than in 1980, state statistics show.
The number of Texas officers assaulted last year increased by 17.9 percent from 2007.
Still, some criminal-justice experts say that too often SWAT teams with military-style equipment and tactics are deployed for routine duties, such as serving warrants.
"In the past, SWAT teams and their military-type equipment were used in extreme circumstances and that was rare," Eastern Kentucky's Kraska said in a recent interview with the Star-Telegram. "Now, it's much more."
Kraska said that nationwide, SWAT teams were dispatched about 3,000 times each year in the 1980s.
Last year, that happened about 55,000 times, he said.
"The legitimate argument is that these armored vehicles and SWAT teams should be used in extreme, dangerous situations," Kraska said. "But that's it."
Former Kansas state trooper Greg Evensen, who has written articles on the militarization of police departments, has also criticized the trend. "What ever happened to local 'peace officers'?" Evensen wrote in 2006. "You remember. The cop everyone knew, liked and respected because of his courage, devotion to duty and the citizens of his/her community."
Several criminal-justice professors have said the trend will likely continue for several years, even though the military-style equipment could be expensive to maintain.
Flory, Bedford's police chief, said the equipment must be used wisely.
Bedford used its armored vehicle and SWAT team a week ago when a woman held police at bay from her apartment for more than two hours. The standoff ended when the woman shot herself.
"The funding and the technology is what police departments are looking for to curb crime rates," Flory said. "It makes good sense to use what's available."
North Richland Hills' new armored vehicle will be put to various public-safety uses and can be deployed to nearby communities, emergency management coordinator Sean Hughes said.
The vehicle, made by Lenco, has steel armor that can repel multiple attacks from assault weapons and multi-hit ballistic glass. The ceilings and floor are blast-fragmentation-resistant. Some Lenco vehicles have gun ports and roof hatches with rotating turrets.
"In my opinion, it's a multifaceted public-safety vehicle," Hughes said. "It will be used by police, but it has detection equipment that could be used by the Fire Department."
But the military/police issue apparently remains a delicate one in the city; police officials declined to have the new armored vehicle photographed.
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