Application Exercise 2

Humvees in Ferguson* In the days after the tragic shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, the news shows were full of videos about local police armed with machine guns and driving heavily armed fighting vehicles. The New York Times described a desert-khaki-pained MRAP—mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle—sitting next to a snowplow in the municipal garage of Neenah, Wisconsin. And the University of Central Florida in Orlando is ready for ”real trouble.” It owns a grenade launcher, retooled to fire tear-gas canisters. Hundreds of communities nationwide have received hand-me-down military equipment, from machine guns and armored vehicles to helicopters and night-vision glasses. All the equipment comes from the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which gives police departments throughout the country “wartime stuff” that the military no longer needs. The argument behind the underlying militarization of local police departments is that it is better to provide this equipment to local police officers instead of simply tossing it away. Local police departments often contend they can never be too prepared for the many threats they face. The idea of “used military equipment” being used by local departments throughout American cities has raised concerns among some critics who have questioned whether the feds are fueling racial tensions through a policy of super-arming police officers. As Eastern Kentucky University criminal justice professor Peter Kraska told a reporter, a “small agency can go rapidly from one of protecting and serving to one of viewing the community as the enemy and a potential threat.” 1Links to an external site.Links to an external site. That concern led President Obama to call for a full review of the DOD’s 1033 program. Following the tragic death of Michael Brown, pundits suggested that the feds and their 1033 program had fueled the tensions in Ferguson. However, they were incorrect. National Journal reporter Emma Roller called the Pentagon to ask how much of Ferguson’s weaponry came from the 1033 program—the answer: almost nothing. The town’s police department picked up a couple of Humvees, a cargo trailer, and a generator through the program. But nothing in the center of the controversy came from the Pentagon. The department’s press secretary, John Kirby, said, “We didn't provide it to them.” The police departments in Ferguson and St. Louis bought almost everything seen on television with their funds. 2Links to an external site.Links to an external site. https://collegepublishing(dot)sagepub(dot)com/search?coursecategories=698d8f26-1da0-41c5-a7dd-f90f9b96a6da#fn2 There’s something much deeper going on in the 1033 program than the military’s effort to find a good home for used merchandise. Most of the equipment isn’t weaponry—Yale University received men’s trousers, and Nashville’s police department got Zodiac boats, which its officers used in the 2010 floods to rescue stranded residents. And with cops sometimes finding themselves in difficult tactical situations and under assault, giving them the best protection makes sense. Even with many departments stocked up on nontraditional weapons, from silencers to mine-resistant vehicles, the problem isn’t so much the feds fueling racial tension with the equipment. It’s the way the equipment symbolizes ongoing friction in many communities between local police and their citizens. Many police departments have long-standing racial tensions with citizens, especially in those places where the composition of the police force doesn’t match that of the town. In Ferguson, where two-thirds of the population is black, 50 of the 53 police officers were white. Ferguson isn’t alone. In Grandview, Missouri, the police force is 92 percent white, while the population is 55 percent non-white. Kansas City, Kansas, has a police department that is 72 percent white, while its population is 60 percent nonwhite. Most police officers are incredibly hard-working and go to work every day to tackle a challenging mission. Diversity is much more complex than a numbers game, and some diverse departments need help with community relations. There isn’t good evidence that racial diversity makes police forces more effective or that police officers of different races treat the people they encounter any differently. Moreover, hiring more black and brown officers will not wipe away police-community tensions, and increasing diversity is a hard road, experts say. It seems to matter much more about whether top officials support efforts by their officers to build neighborhood ties. Finally, police departments, like most organizations, are shaped like a pyramid. There is no universal standard regarding the size, structure, and governance of police organizations. At the apex of most police organizations is either a police chief or commissioner. These officers are, in turn, accountable to local elected officials (usually the mayor and/or the city council. The next level within a police department is the deputy chief. Captains oversee major department divisions such as patrol, investigations, traffic, narcotics, internal affairs, SWAT, administration, and finance. These units are subdivided into units headed by lieutenants and sergeants. At the lower end of the police hierarchy are the patrol officers. Questions to be addressed Please write an essay on the Humvees in Ferguson incident in which you address the following questions in an integrated essay. Your essay should be between four and five pages, properly footnoted, and grammatically correct. There was much criticism of the federal government following the Michael Brown shooting for supplying equipment to local police departments. The feds said it was better to transfer surplus materials to local governments, which could be useful. Critics claimed that it increased the militarization of local police departments. Is the so-called 1033 program a good way of providing local police departments with additional resources--or does it risk worsening citizens' relationships with the police? Why or why not? Consider the racial composition of the Ferguson police department at the time of Michael Brown’s shooting. Should the mismatch between the racial composition of the police department and the community have caused concern among the mayor and city council? Should efforts have been undertaken to change the police department’s organizational culture? Why or why not? What organizational dynamics can complicate a well-intentioned restructuring of the police department? Given the racial tensions we’ve seen in recent years between citizens and police, what strategies and tactics would you recommend to enhance the effectiveness of policing while reducing community tensions? Finally, How can the study of public service contribute to the issue of police accountability in a democratic society? Can individual police officers and law enforcement departments be held accountable for reducing crime and maintaining order while treating citizens professionally, ethically, and fairly? Why or why not? *This case initially appeared in the December 2014 edition of Governing magazine as part of the author’s “Potomac Chronicle” column.) Reprinted in The Politics of the Administrative Process, (8th Edition), 2018, pp. 79-80.