Study: Militarization of police does not reduce crime
A new look at existing data by LSU researchers refutes the Trump administration's claims.
10 December, 2020
Credit: Megan Varner/Getty
- The United States Department of Defense gifts surplus military equipment and clothing to local police departments.
- The militarization of police coincides with a significant loss of trust in law enforcement from the American public.
- Militarized police departments are more likely to interact violently with their communities.
<p>Watching coverage of protests in American streets, many of us have been shocked to witness what modern policing often looks like. Even putting aside the reason for many of these demonstrations in the first place—allegations of police brutality—what we see onscreen marching towards protestors is chilling. We witness police garbed in helmets, flak jackets, tactical dress, and carrying assault rifles, backed by weaponry designed for the battlefield, not the nation's thoroughfares.</p><p>The primary source of this equipment and clothing is the Federal government's <a href="https://www.dla.mil/DispositionServices/Offers/Reutilization/LawEnforcement/ProgramFAQs.aspx" target="_blank">1033 program</a>, which has been described as "Uncle Sam's Goodwill Store." This surplus military equipment (SME)—or "reutilized" gear as the Department of Defense (DOD) calls it—is granted, for free, to local law enforcement agencies, or "LEAs." <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-hand-me-downs-militarize-police-1033-program/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WIRED</a> estimates the Pentagon has gifted to local police some $7.3 billion worth of military equipment and clothing.</p><p>Concerned about the manner in which this militarization has affected policing, and following 2014's Ferguson protests, President Obama curtailed the program. The Trump administration removed these limits in 2017, claiming research had proved militarization reduces crime.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2020/12/07polisci_gunderson_nature.php" target="_blank">new study</a> from Louisiana State University (LSU) revisits that research, finding it incomplete and inconsistent. The researchers, led by LSU political scientist Anna Gunderson, collected their own more comprehensive and accurate data and concluded that militarizing local police does not actually reduce crime. </p>
A wide lack of support
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk0NTA5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MTgxMjQ3MX0.MkHMggYd2V-JEEGobDPR51QSNgycPFCUFXGMMPCS2cc/img.jpg?width=980" id="e4754" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="523ef043784b62c3fba76f42668de0a4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1440" data-height="912" />Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images
<p>It's no wonder that more than half of the American public <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/us/gallup-poll-police.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">no longer trusts the police</a>. It's hard not to get the impression that for many police departments, the mission has changed from one of support for its communities to an attempt to intimidate and dominate its members.</p><p>Studies back this up. Police whose departments use military equipment are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053168017712885" target="_blank">more often violent</a> with community members and are more likely to kill them. Neither is this a small problem at the margins of policing: <a href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/nationaltrends" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Over 1,000 people</a> are killed by police annually.</p><p>In spite of the Trump administration's faith in the soundness of the 1033 program, others from across the political spectrum disagree. On the right, the Charles Koch Foundation <a href="https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/issue-areas/criminal-justice-policing-reform/militarization-of-police/" target="_blank">asserts</a>, "This erosion of public confidence in law enforcement and low support for militarization impedes law enforcement's ability to effectively secure public safety." From the left, the American Civil Liberties Union <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police/police-militarization" target="_blank">says</a>, "We advocate for a return to a less dangerous, more collaborative style of policing. We should not be able to mistake our officers for soldiers."</p>Sketchy records
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk0NTA5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTE1Nzk5MX0.KuoUq6a7B-1Pc01yH9bMziQE6rTg-aGvN00SgSCBUVA/img.jpg?width=980" id="7f861" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="602430081af21aa3ec2c66b79042a96a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1440" data-height="1033" />The Pentagon
Credit: JeremyAdobe Stock
<p>Gunderson explains to <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2020/12/07polisci_gunderson_nature.php" target="_blank">LSU Media Center</a> that, "scholars rely on accurate data to track and analyze the true effect of police militarization on crime. Policymakers also need accurate data to base their decisions upon. However, to-date, we do not have reliable data on SME transfers to local police and sheriffs through the federal government."</p><p>The research cited by the Trump administration was a study done by the American Economic Association based on SME data collected through a 2014 Freedom of Information Act request. Having a look at that data themselves, along with other FOIA 2014 data released by National Public Radio and newer data from 2018, the LSU researchers found that things didn't quite line up. Where FOIA suggests certain counties received SME, NPR's data showed no such transfer. Similarly, NPR reported departments receiving items such as weapons, grants that were not reflected in the 2018 data as expected.</p><p>"When we looked at the data and ran the replications, nothing looked like the results being cited by the Trump Administration," Gunderson recalls. "We spent a year trying to diagnose the problem."</p>Instead
<p>The LSU researchers' conclusion was the the previously released SME data from the DOD was too inconsistent to produce reliable insights. They conducted their own analysis, aligning newer data with country-level LEA data, to derive a cohesive, accurate picture that allowed them to more definitively assess who got SME transfers and who didn't, and what effect it had on local crime statistics.</p><p>They found no indication that SME transfers led to a reduction in crime. The study concludes, "we find no evidence that federal distributions of SME to local LEAs across the United States reduce crime rates, neither violent nor nonviolent crime rates, in the jurisdictions that receive it."</p><p>Gunderson adds:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"This is a cautionary tale about the importance of oversight. The most important thing for policymakers and the public to know is that you can't justify giving surplus military equipment to police departments on the grounds it will lead to a reduction in crime. There is no evidence for that. You can't claim this program is important because it reduces crime."</p><p>What's more says, the report, "because of serious data problems and debatable methodological choices in prior studies, the empirical foundations on which social scientists, along with policymakers and the public, stand when making causal claims about the effects of the transfers of SME may be no firmer than quicksand."</p>
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The Secret Service is buying social media location data
New documents confirm that the government agency—one of many—has been using a tracking company.
18 August, 2020
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
- Documents reveal that the Secret Service used Locate X as part of a social media tracking package.
- The service "allows investigators to draw a digital fence around an address or area, pinpoint mobile devices that were within that area, and see where else those devices have traveled, going back months."
- Other agencies that have used this service include the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
<p>A popular, recurrent conspiracy theory: all humans will soon be microchipped so the government can track our every movement. This year, that idea was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648" target="_blank">briefly attached</a> to a potential COVID-19 vaccine, though the fear has long been present. </p><p>The irony, of course, is that we're already chipped. We just call them phones.</p><p>We probably shouldn't be surprised that the U.S. Secret Service contracted with a company to use the service, Locate X, in order to track Americans via social media. But <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgxk3g/secret-service-phone-location-data-babel-street" target="_blank">they did</a>, and once again we're forced to distinguish between baseless conspiracies and the real-world consequences of government surveillance. </p><p>According to internal Secret Service documents, obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request, the agency paid the Virginia-based company, Babel Street, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/17/21371886/secret-service-usss-locate-x-babel-street-foia-contract-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">roughly $36,000</a> to include Locate X in a social media monitoring package that ultimately cost $2 million.</p><p>According to the <a href="https://trademarks.justia.com/874/53/locate-87453515.html" target="_blank">trademark</a>, Locate X provides:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"online, non-downloadable software used to collect, analyze, filter, store, track, manage, convert, interpret, categorize, index, extrapolate, compare, prioritize and produce databases, images, emails, files, documents, information, and data from online sources, websites and social media sites and to create reports in the fields of client-driven commercial, legal and governmental inquiries and investigations." </p><p>And that's only the first one-third of Locate X's goods and services.</p><p>As early as March, Protocol <a href="https://www.protocol.com/government-buying-location-data" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">reported</a> on the dangers of Locate X. The deal with Babel Street "allows investigators to draw a digital fence around an address or area, pinpoint mobile devices that were within that area, and see where else those devices have traveled, going back months."</p><p>Despite statements that claim these services collect large swaths of anonymous data, it's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/10/business/location-data-privacy-apps.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">possible to identify</a> individual users. While the terms of use for Locate X states the data is "used for internal research purposes only," it would be hard to believe the Secret Service is only interested in anonymous research. </p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU2NTA1OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjQ2MDEwN30.3M0IF12kS-5eQ6jUPjKVy2sLeCMFbF-aNcpn1mdyGS4/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C100%2C0%2C100&height=700" id="2bc57" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cb4a85602cd3f2157470abc0d639bc9c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="group of people crossing the street holding phones" data-width="1245" data-height="700" />
<p class=""><br></p>Young players walk through the city centre of Hanover while holding their smartphones and playing "Pokemon Go" on July 15, 2016 in Hanover, Germany.
Photo by Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
<p>Besides, the Secret Service is not Babel Street's only client. Others <a href="https://www.inputmag.com/tech/cbp-ice-the-secret-service-are-reportedly-locate-x-to-track-people-through-their-apps" target="_blank">include</a> the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and others.</p><p>The Secret Service has <a href="https://www.protocol.com/government-buying-location-data" target="_blank">apparently used</a> Locate X to identify credit card skimming thieves. <a href="https://www.protocol.com/government-buying-location-data" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">According to</a> former employees of location-based companies that provide data to Babel Street, "the sale of personal location data from commercial firms to the government is more widespread and has been going on longer than previously known."</p><p>In 1985, Neil Postman wrote about Orwell's "1984" prophecy coming and going. In "Amusing Ourselves to Death," the cultural critic noted that Orwell got a lot right, but with "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley may have been the real winner when it comes to understanding the future. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture."</p><p>There's no need for a secret government plot to microchip us. Tech companies sold chips that we willingly bought; governments are simply purchasing the rights to locate them. That's not a conspiracy. We're staring straight into the truth every single day. </p><p>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://derekberes.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">Substack</a>. His next book is</em> "<em>Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."</em></p>
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Penn Jillette: The year that shattered America's illusions
The year 2020 will go down in history as one that shook our inner and outer worlds.
09 July, 2020
In this Big Think Live session, magician, author, and cultural critic Penn Jillette will discuss the giant upheavals of 2020 through the lens of what he knows best: illusions.
<p>Which social, personal, and governmental illusions have been shattered this year, and how (and what) should we rebuild? Jillette, one half the world's most famous magic duo with Teller, will also give tips on how to foster long-term business partnerships and sustain creativity, and how he maintains a clear, rational mind in the noisiest era to date.
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Moderated by Victoria Montgomery-Brown, co-founder and CEO of Big Think.</p><p><strong>STREAMING LINKS:</strong></p><p><a href="https://edge.bigthink.com/live_streams/99">
Big Think Edge</a> | <a href="https://youtu.be/kXtD3zTxjO4">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom/posts/10157492362503527">Facebook</a>
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8 powerful speakers that might make you think differently about racism
8 powerful voices share what it's like to be black in America, and why white people must break the racist status quo.
19 June, 2020
- Black communities have been telling the nation, for more than a century, that they have been targeted, beaten, falsely accused and killed by the police and other institutions meant to protect them.
- They have not been believed until recently, when the rise in camera phones and social media finally enabled them show and disseminate proof.
- Even after the video of George Floyd's death on May 25, 2020, there remains defensiveness and denial among white Americans and institutions—a defensiveness that prevents change to the root of the problem: systemic racism. In this video, eight powerful voices share perspectives on being black in America, and why white inaction and white politeness must end.
To learn more about what you can do to end the racist status quo, educate yourself and take action. Here is Robin DiAngelo's list of resources.
An expert explains what 'Abolish the Police' really means
It turns out big ideas don't always fit in sign-sized slogans.
18 June, 2020
Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images
- People are talking a lot about abolishing police lately, but what does that mean?
- We spoke with an expert on the subject, who reveals the nuance in the idea.
- Like any broad concept, there are a diversity of ideas expressed in the slogan.
<p>Unless you've been living under a rock, you are undoubtedly aware that Americans are taking to the streets in opposition to police brutality in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others. One of the protesters' demands is articulated by the seemingly rash statement, "Abolish the Police." <br> <br> On the face of it, this demand can seem like anarchistic nonsense. One might ask how society will function with nobody filling the duties of the police departments. However, getting past the rhetoric allows us to dive into the idea behind the phrasing. There, we find a more nuanced notion with plenty of intellectual history behind it.</p>
An interview with Maira Khwaja
<p>To learn more about this, I spoke with Maira Khwaja, the Engagement Director at the <a href="https://invisible.institute/" target="_blank">Invisible Institute</a> in Chicago. A lightly edited transcript of our interview appears below:</p><p><strong>How would you describe the idea of Police Abolition? </strong><br> <br> "Police and prison abolition is like a mindset of trying to imagine and work towards a society where police would not be necessary. It's not about 'we end police tomorrow.' It's about trying to create a world where we don't need police and prisons. For somebody just learning about it for the first time, I can imagine it would sound impossible. The point is about imagining what else we need to come up first."<br> <br> <strong>Why is this preferable to reform efforts?</strong></p><p>"Abolitionist reforms seek to take power from the police and put it elsewhere where it would reduce crime at its source. In Chicago, if somebody is struggling with homelessness, you have to go through the police in order to get any homeless services. This can make people too afraid to get the help they need. What if there was a different front door to access the services they need? An abolitionist reform might be to create an alternative first responder for dealing with homelessness in the city. Chicago has 'advanced' reforms. We need officers to record each time they pull a gun. Anecdotally, we can see this isn't happening."</p><p><strong>Is police abolition the same thing as "defund the police" that you see on so many protest signs these days?</strong></p><p>"Not the same, but defund the police is part of abolition. The critical thing is that defund the police doesn't go far enough. It must be defund and invest. We have to take the money from the police and put it into something that has been defunded a lot. In Chicago, this would be education and housing. 'Defund' sounds radical until you realize how many other social services have been defunded over the last few decades."<br> <strong><br> </strong><strong>In the mind of a supporter of police abolition, how do the police work? How does this impact the viewpoint?</strong></p><p>"Think of abolition as 'What if the police didn't exist at all? What would we have to do to deal with people's help and safety and crisis response?' We would have some group to fight crime. Pure abolitionists would say 'policing should not exist.'<br> <br> I say, I'm not entirely there yet on not having any system of policing. There would be crime and exploitation. I would like to see an alternative kind of first response when crimes are committed.<br> <br> Jaime Kalvin (also of the Invisible Institute<em>) </em>suggested that there is a core function of police, reacting to situations where people feel physically threatened. I would have police address that core function and leave everything else to other services and just have the police address the truest emergencies."</p>Is that everything then?
<p>Now, Maira Khwaja can only speak for their point of view, but they identify many key points in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_abolition_movement" target="_blank">abolitionist cause</a>. Namely, reducing the number of things the police are called in for, taking police funding and putting it into programs that prevent crime, and considering what alternative methods of dealing with crime and safety exist that don't involve the police force. </p>Who else has written on this? What do they say?
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-media_id="h9zLrcKs" data-player_id="FvQKszTI" data-rm-shortcode-id="ec8557ce07d3452c68d603c96f0042dc"> <div id="botr_h9zLrcKs_FvQKszTI_div" class="jwplayer-media" data-jwplayer-video-src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/h9zLrcKs-FvQKszTI.js"> <img src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/thumbs/h9zLrcKs-1920.jpg" class="jwplayer-media-preview" /> </div> <script src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/h9zLrcKs-FvQKszTI.js"></script> </div> <p>The significant points behind the police abolition movement have been floating around for decades. Former vice presidential candidate and activist Dr. Angela Davis has been discussing the idea for years. Her work in the related concept of <a href="https://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Are_Prisons_Obsolete_Angela_Davis.pdf" target="_blank">prison abolition </a>does too. In one of her recent <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/12/angela_davis_on_abolition_calls_to" target="_blank">interviews</a>, she further explains the idea:</p><p> "Defunding the police is not simply about withdrawing funding for law enforcement and doing nothing else. And it appears as if this is the rather superficial understanding that has caused Biden to move in the direction he's moving in. It's about shifting public funds to new services and new institutions — mental health counselors, who can respond to people who are in crisis without arms. It's about shifting funding to education, to housing, to recreation. All of these things help to create security and safety. It's about learning that safety, safeguarded by violence, is not really safety. And I would say that abolition is not primarily a negative strategy. It's not primarily about dismantling, getting rid of, but it's about reenvisioning. It's about building anew."</p><p>Mariame Kaba, the director of <a href="http://project-nia.org/" target="_blank">Project NIA</a>, has been involved in the prison abolition movement for a while and lays out their ideas in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html" target="_blank">New York Times OpEd</a> which argues that our current model of crime prevention is less effective than you think and that alternatives would not only reduce police brutality but prevent more crime in the long run. </p><p><a href="http://www.alex-vitale.info/" target="_blank">Professor Alex Vitale</a> of Brooklyn College explained his stances in an interview with <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/alex-vitale-police-reform-defund-protests" target="_blank">Jacobin</a>, where he argues that police brutality is a feature of our current system which has endured despite decades of well-meaning people admitting the problem was real. He then argues that dramatic change is necessary to solve the problem. His ideas can also be found in his book "The End of Policing," which is <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing" target="_blank">currently available by download for free.</a> </p><p>As Maira Khwaja said, the concept is broad, and there are many views within it. Some of these thinkers advance ideas that others would reject as too much or too little. Despite this, the fundamental concepts of reducing the number of issues we delegate to the police and taking the money this saves and putting it into things like education, healthcare, and social services remains. </p><p>Activists are not known for getting the phrasing of their demands reviewed by savvy media gurus who can make them inoffensive or grant them laser-like precision. While the phrase "abolish the police" is an inaccurate depiction of what many, but not all, activists want to do, it is a bold enough phrase to ignite the fires of debate –which is precisely what activism is supposed to do.</p><p>Given that you've just read an entire article considering what the idea is, it seems like the phrasing has worked wonders. </p>
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