Page 158 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Summer 2015

Rise of the Warrior Cop
The Militarization of America’s Police Forces

Balko, Radley. Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces.
New York, NY: Public Affairs; 2013. Paperback 2014. ISBN 978-1-61039-457-4.
Review by John F. Kragh Jr, MD

read Rise of the Warrior Cop right after I finished reading York City, and elsewhere, the police have challenges, but is
IDaryl Gates’ autobiography, Chief. Gates was instrumen- militarization a problem or a priority?
tal in bringing SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) to Los
Angeles, and he became the chief of However, my second point appears to be beyond that pos-
police. I was interested in the SWAT sible purpose. To me, the larger issue in the world is that
portion of our operational medicine the military is becoming more police-like over time. When I
community. I also had been hearing went to West Point, the United States Military Academy, in
about the militarization of police on 1981, we were taught that we were managers of violence, a
television from presidential candi- Samuel Huntington phrase for the prevention and prosecu-
dates and reporters. When I read the tion of war and military actions. Although this phrase has
book’s title, I realized that the people been used less over time, its idea still has value. The police
on television had read the book or and military have obvious differences in violence manage-
were using phrases from it, such as ment, but they also have obvious similarities. In the op-
the title or subtitle. The book was a erational medicine community, we hear often that lessons
good and fast read. The author is described as “an award- learned can apply to both police work and military work.
winning investigative journalist who writes about civil lib- Police–military collaboration of organizations outside
erties, police, prosecutors, and the broader criminal justice medicine exists in security, tactics, and training. At West
system.” The acknowledgement section implies that this is Point in the early 1980s, we focused only on a potential
his first book that was successfully published. land war with the Soviets in West Germany’s Fulda gap. If
cadets wanted to study counterinsurgency, they had to take
The reason the book was written is either not stated or I an elective as a senior—few could, few did. Today, the mili-
could not find it. The author literally starts with the ques- tary is hunting terrorists in the deserts, searching for pirates
tion: “Are cops constitutional?” A fair amount of the book on the seas, chasing outlaw radicals on the streets. Failed
deals with this question either directly or indirectly, but to states, chaos, and anarchy have led to calls for America
me the question does not imply a clear purpose. Many poli- to be the policeman of the world, for the military to pro-
cies are discussed, and this is probably why so much of the vide order. The colossal tank battle became law and order.
book was useful to people on television. The writing ad- There seems a need for order before law becomes relevant.
dresses legislation, history and politics, tactical practices, By covering law enforcement, the book presents just half
good cops and bad cops. The historical trend of police the story.
forces developing military-like skills is well evidenced, but
very little of the book is about operational medicine. The Given recent events after the book’s first publication in
argument made is compelling that such development is 2013, the constitutional question is now stale. Daily and
longstanding and pervasive and has complex causes. The occasionally hourly crises—the Sydney hostage taking, the
author evidences missteps at length, but he does occasion- Paris Charlie Hebdo (French for Charlie Weekly) attacks by
ally highlight virtues. I do not find much to argue about extremists, the post-Charlie security operations that ensued
with the author, but one point is utilitarian: to me in this across several European countries, and other events requir-
day and age of security challenges such as drug wars and ing complex, sustained, ongoing police operations—seem
terrorism—police capabilities have to be commensurate to be occurring more frequently. The security challenges
with the challenges. It seems dismissive to think a police appear to be increasing, and the relevance of capabilities
department does not need armored vehicles or special seems greater with each increase in the challenges. This
weapons because someone feels that the present challenges postpublication reality dulls the edge of the author’s dis-
do not justify acquiring such capabilities. It appears to cussion a bit but not enough to dissuade any interested
me that the author is trying to inform a discussion on the reader from deciding to read this book. It is worthwhile to
challenge–capability balance for policy deciders. For this the interested reader. I recommend it. I just hope someone
purpose, the author and book succeed. It seems clear to writes a book—present based and future oriented—about
me that with recent problems in Ferguson, Missouri, New police–military convergence: The rest of the story.

148 Journal of Special Operations Medicine Volume 15, Edition 2/Summer 2015