Academic Complicity in Police Militarization

• In Event: Critical Perspectives on State Policies

Abstract

The earliest research on U.S. police militarization discovered a close - perhaps even symbiotic - relationship between the militarized policing trend and the so-called "community policing revolution." Contrary to the often-discussed theme of incoherence in late-modern criminal justice policy, it appeared that police practitioners had melded a seeming ideological contradiction (a democratic vs. a military model) into a rational operating logic that made theoretical sense to ground-level workers. This paper explores the possibility that this should not be interpreted as simply an in-the-field concocted quest for coherence. Rather, I will explore the argument that it was -- and continues to be -- a particular strain of academic and public scholarship literature (and federal grant/consulting work) that actively promoted a militaristic approach under the guise of democratic community policing. I will also discuss the disastrous consequences (both intended and unintended) of this complicity.

Author

• Peter Kraska, Eastern Kentucky University