Question

How can we analyze the possible social benefits or consequences to society by the militarization of the police using our sociological imagination? How can we relate this discussion to current world events

Answer 1

1. We can analyze the possible social benefits or consequences by creating a standard that deemed as 'desirable' social situation and measures the situation before and after the militarization.
If after the militarization our society got closer to the desirable outcome, we would say that the militarization produces a social benefit.

2. We could take a look at the example of American military occupation in Iraq.
Initially, we intended for the militarization to create a democratic country in iraq after we remove the dictator from power.
But it only resulted in a vacuum that attract many radical groups to came in to control the country. In this case, we can conclude that the militarization produce more consequences than benefit.

Answer 2

Some of the social benefits of police militarization is that it has reduces crime. The main argument that favors police militarization is that law enforcement agencies are facing increasingly and highly sophisticated threats from criminal elements.

For example, in 2007 there was a shoot-out in North Hollywood, the two criminals in this incident put on body armor and other sophisticated weapons while the law enforcement agency deployed for the operation didn't have such weapons in their disposal.

LAPD policemen needed to check local gun stores to return fires and protect themselves.  In the aftermath, eleven officers were injured. One of the gun men was killed. Following the incident, there was a demand that the law enforcement agency must be equipped in order to face similar occurrence in the future.

Militarization of the police simply refers to the use of both equipment and tactics of the military by the law enforcement personnel.  These military equipment uses in the militarization of the police include assault rifles, sniper rifles, special weapons and tactics (SWAT teams), submachine guns, flashband grenades, mindsets, and armored personal carrier.

Police militarization also means adopting the military culture in dealing with societal issues. The pattern of the military, its tenets, and models is used by the civilian police. However, there are certain potential dangers of police militarization in the society.

The militarization of the police has reduces public trust for the law enforcement agency, although some community continues to regard their law enforcement agency but since early 2000s, the public trust and confidence in law enforcement agency as an institution has significantly declined.

The majority of American in 2016 national survey stated that believe the use of military equipment and tactics by the police is going too far. In the survey report, American also reiterates that police should obtain a warrant before embarking on any search assignment such as conducting a search on vehicles or home or phone calls monitoring.  

KEYWORDS:

• law enforcement agency
• militarization of the police
• police militarization