A U.S. police officer armed with a holographic sight-equipped M4 carbine rifle during a training exercise. The militarization of police escalated with the 1033 program, initiated by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, ostensibly to address organized drug trafficking.

Federal officers' most common primary function was criminal investigation or enforcement (68%), corrections (25%), and police response and patrol (9%). Around 15% of federal law enforcement officers and 13% of supervisory law enforcement personnel were female in 2020.

There are 17,985 police agencies in the United States which include local police departments, county sheriff's offices, state troopers, and federal law enforcement agencies.

May 24, 2019 · Thanks primarily to the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which allows law enforcement agencies to get their hands on Department of Defense technology, and the Bush-era War on Terror, American police have received a startling amount of heavy-duty, military-grade hardware.

May 18, 2015 · Americans have grown used to seeing police respond to protests with tear gas, carrying automatic weapons and sniper rifles, and riding in vehicles that would not look out of place in Baghdad or...

Oct 25, 2023 · From 1966 through the 1990s, high-profile crimes committed with powerful weapons left U.S. law enforcement feeling outgunned, spurring a surge in police militarization that taxpayers often funded.

Jan 12, 2022 · Police began carrying automatic weapons like the Thompson Submachine Gun and using armored vehicles for the first time. This violent period of history also established the popular belief in the necessity of a heavily armed police force capable of dealing with the most dangerous criminals.

Jun 23, 2014 · This investigation gave us data to corroborate a trend we have been noticing nationwide: American policing has become unnecessarily and dangerously militarized, in large part through federal programs that have armed state and local law enforcement agencies with the weapons and tactics of war, with almost no public discussion or oversight.

Mar 3, 2023 · Put simply, police militarization consists of a decades-old federal government practice of making military equipment available to state and local law enforcement departments. The initial intent was to help arm police in the war on drugs and later to prevent terror attacks.

Jun 13, 2020 · Partly relying on donated military equipment, armed police officers decked out in riot gear have been deployed around the country, inviting comparisons to army soldiers. In parts of the...