The quasi-military police war on crime
In today’s world peace and order is an essential factor for the progress of the economy, the society and the nation at large. From time in history, police have been the key players of maintaining peace and order in our community. The police agencies of a nation or a state are mandated with the duty of protecting their citizens against criminals who might bring harm to them either directly or indirectly. Being one of the disciplined forces in a nation, the police a regarded highly, and people tend to depend on them for help as they took an oath to serve and protect.
The police organization of its departments has evolved and changed over time, which brought in the formulation of the quasi-military police. These are police agencies that are formal bureaucracies that have a highly established labour division and have a hierarchical structure of power. The hierarchy consists of levels like a sergeant, lieutenant, and captain and patrol officer. In this type of force, there is only a top to the bottom structure of command. Militarizing the police agencies at time downsides the bureaucracy, which results in problems, the Militarizing the police agencies has its disadvantages that affect the way they do their duties.
The military is trained to fight wars, and in the battlefield, they fight with a notion of ‘anything goes in war’ which means that the end justifies the means. With this type of mindset, then they would do anything they can to ensure that the desired goal and objectives are achieved. This can be understood for the military that engages or fights with terrorists who threaten their country as on the battlefield, and there are no rules. But on the other hand when police agencies are militarized, then it becomes a problem.
Usually, the main focus for the police is usually to keep order, settle disputes, and do everything by the books. This changes with the militarization of police as the downside bureaucracy and they stop doing things by the book. It results in indifference to human needs and rights, lack of flexibility in their work to accommodate all sorts of people and allows the use of excessive force or red tape to solve problems. The borrowing of military structures and way of doing this is not appropriate for community policing as it is used in very hostile conditions by the military.
The notion of police that they fight a war on crime or a war on drugs makes them have the idea of anything goes, which makes them forget that they are dealing with citizens and not radicalized terrorists. The militarization of the police has a lot of disadvantages such as the lack of trust from the community since there is no longer a middle ground to separate police and military. It takes away the personal touch and turns into a machine with no empathy for the people he swore to protect and serve. It also results in mental health problems which are caused by job stress, lack of sleep, personal time and drug use.
On the other hand, although it has a bad side police militarization also has a good side or advantages such as being able to reduce crime level hugely or in some cases eradicate it. It comes in handy when their lives are in danger and when subduing a violent protest. Although I do not support the police militarization, it is only logical for someone to look at their side and their lives in the line of duty.