Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

cuffing them like criminals. Boston police started cracking down on street merchantsand beggars. l2l A Washlngton, D.C., Metro Police officer explained hisdepartmenfs zero-tolerance efforts: "[The administrators] want to see numbers,so we're arresting people and locking them up for almost nothing." 122 Indianapolisinstituted "quality of life enforcemenf' in 1997 with funds from the federalCommunity Oriented Policing program. 123 The Miami police department's focuson safe shopping led a half dozen Miami cops to kick, pepper spray, and shackleLewis Rivera, a homeless man eating at a shopping mall; an hour later Rivera wasdeadY" Even Portland, Oregon, has tried to become the new New York, witha law against sitting on the sidewalk, and neighborhood campaigns targetingchurches that feed the homeless. 12 s Bratton himself has recently taken his considerableskills to the Los Angles Police Department, where he began his term aspolice chief with promises to target graffiti, begging, and gangs. 126MILITARIZATION IN THE COMMUNITY POLICING CONTEXTGiven the popularity of the Broken Windows theory and the world-wide rush toimitate the New York police, we can begin to understand the use of paramilitaryteams to conduct routine patrols. As a zero-tolerance tool, SWAT teams have alot going for them. One officer explains:We conduct a lot of saturation patrol.. .. We focus on "quality of life" issueslike illegal parking, loud music, bums, neighbor troubles. We have thefreedom to stay in a hot area and clean it up-particularly gangs. Ourtactical enforcement team works nicely with our department's emphasison community policing . . . . 127While not exactly building community partnerships, these saturation patrols dorepresent an extreme form of the kind of proactive, preventative, geographicallyfocused operations at the center of the community policing approach. Suchuses of SWAT teams provide a clear instance of the intersection between communitypolicing and militarized tactics, equipment, ideology, and organizationalstructures. The connection is empirically indisputable: many police departmentsesteemed for their community policing efforts use paramilitary units forpatrols and other routine operations. I 2 8 Commanders have been known to movebetween community policing posts and paramilitary assignments, sometimesoccupying both positions simultaneously. 12 9 And funds designated for communitypolicing programs are frequently used to pay for SWAT operations. 130The use of SWAT teams for neighborhood patrols is striking, but it is notby any means the only point of contact between militarization and communitypolicing. Beginning in 2001, the D.C. Metropolitan police established links tohundreds of video cameras strategically positioned around the city. Adaptedfrom military technology, the cameras continuously survey federal buildingsand national monuments, public streets, subway and train stations, schools,and-thanks to the business association-stores in Georgetown. Headingthe project is Stephen J Gaffison, the former Justice Department director ofcommunity policing programs. He describes the system:The video technology is state-of-the-art, fully computerized switching equipmentthat is very similar to what you would find in a NASA or defense command215