End military equipment program for police
If there’s one conclusion to be drawn from years of military equipment winding up in the hands of local police departments, it’s that it’s hard to de-escalate from the seat of an armored vehicle. De-escalation in tense situations on the part of police is essential to avoiding violence. It comes up as a top training recommendation whenever there is a death at the hands of local or state police. But when those officers are equipped with weapons of war, the escalation starts even before they meet the public.
The issue is the federal 1033 program that donates unneeded military gear to police departments across the nation, including in Connecticut. Gear can include weapons, helicopters, armored vehicles, night vision goggles and more.
Local departments have been eager participants, saying the gear offers necessary protection for officers and helps keep crime rates low. There’s also evidence that it gives police the appearance of an occupying force, adding distance between them and the people they are meant to serve. It’s not as though regular police work requires vehicles built to withstand mine blasts.
As Michael Lawlor, former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s top criminal justice adviser, told the CT Mirror, “Putting this kind of military equipment in the hands of local police only escalates an already very tense situation and leads to violence.”
There have been moves to end the program on the federal level, but there are a number of roadblocks. A better idea would be action on the state level to end local participation, which could happen as soon as this summer, in a special legislative session. With police accountability on the agenda, an end to military gear on local streets should be among the priorities.
Also to be discussed will be recommendations from the state’s Police Accountability and Transparency Task Force, which recently released its fast-tracked priorities and recommendations document. The task force was created last year in the wake of two highly publicized police-involved shooting deaths in Connecticut within days of each other. It aims to provide more transparency as well as prevent certain actions on the part of officers.
These recommendations are a far cry from the calls to “defund the police” that have become common at rallies. They call for in some cases additional investment and a commitment to community policing, which requires deeper connection with communities police are meant to serve. Still, its basic outlines should sound familiar.
“Adopt a guardian versus warrior culture of policing,” the task force recommends in its draft statement, as well as “Publicly address the role of policing in past injustices,” and “Make it mandatory that officers report misconduct and intervene when they see wrongdoing.”
These should sound like the basics, but there’s nothing wrong with a good starting point. The draft recommendations may not be enough to make everyone happy, but they are a necessary part of the process. Taken as a whole, they represent a chance for a new beginning in policing around the state, one that is desperately needed even as protests have been peaceful.
Step one is an end to a military presence in the streets.