The line between police officer and soldier is becoming more blurred everyday. Recent news stories have highlighted the rapid and concerning increase in the militarization of police departments. Several accounts of police militarization recall officers wearing full body armor suits and using machine guns without valid reasons. Police militarization is unwarranted and should be regulated as it poses as a safety threat to Americans.

According to Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek magazine, police departments are being given or purchasing military grade equipment like Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAPs), which are vehicles designed to withstand explosions. Most of these police departments are receiving equipment because of the 1003 program, an initiative given by the Department of Defense (DOD) that gives military equipment to local and state police departments. Initially, the 1003 program allowed the transfer of extra military equipment to local police departments for the war on drugs. However, six years after the program was instituted, military equipment was authorized for both drug and terrorist circumstances. Local and state police departments do not need equipment scaled for military use, not only because of the lack of need, but because of the way that the weapons are implemented; as tools of fearful coercion of civilians. Eichenwald reports that $4.3 billion worth of military equipment has been given to police forces throughout the country since the beginning of the 1003 program.

On a Saturday afternoon on Aug. 9, 2014, the unarmed Michael Brown was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Although many arguments have been made about who was at fault, the events that occurred after this shooting prove how the police have militarized negatively. Following this fatality, protests, riots, and looting occurred in Ferguson. Police officers regulated these protests while wearing uniforms of those similar to soldiers. Paul Szoldra of Business Insider reports that officers also carried short-barreled 5.56-mm rifle and wore body armor that holds at least four to six extra magazines, loaded with 30 rounds each. According to writer Michael Winter of USA Today, veteran Missouri officer Lt. Ray Albers resigned because he pointed an assault rifle at protesters and threatened to kill them. Many pictures show police officers pointing guns at peaceful protesters and journalists. These shocking violations of human rights cannot go unnoticed. Countless Americans think of the police as a force designed to address problems that harm a city or its citizens in an efficient and appropriate manner. In the case of the Ferguson protests, the police are not only failing to address the problem effectively, they are also contradicting their whole purpose: helping civilians. There was no valid reason for the officers to have their military-grade rifles pointed at journalists whose sole purpose is to provide Americans important information. Just as there was no valid reason for the officers to wield military-grade weapons against protestors.

Although some might argue police need military equipment in case of extreme emergencies, it is unnecessary and could possibly cause harm to people when used without valid reason. In rare circumstances, military supplies could be the difference between life and death when dealing with local terrorists or massive riots. However, that is an exaggeration. Cities with populations of 20,000 and below and with low crime rates do not need to equip their officers with assault rifles or give them flash grenades designed to blind and deafen people for short amounts of time. One possible solution to this dilemma is to regulate the 1003 program. If altered correctly, only police stations in densely populated areas with high crime rates, would receive this powerful equipment.

The police are becoming increasingly militarized in a negative way. The 1003 program is allowing police departments to receive superior equipment more often seen in the military. This equipment is being abused in ways that intimidate civilians, violating the purpose of the equipment and the means of the police and therefore something needs to be change. The US should alter the 1003 to limit police militarization. Keep the police out of people’s yards and restore police identity as protectors of the law, and not breakers of it.