Report Points to ‘Dangerous Militarization’ of U.S. Law Enforcement
Unnecessarily escalating police tactics leads to unnecessary deaths.
Among the ACLU’s findings:
— 62 percent of SWAT raids were for the purpose of conducting drug searches.
— Just 7 percent of SWAT raids were “for hostages, barricade, or active shooter scenarios.”
— SWAT raids are directed disproportionately against people of color — 30 percent of the time the “race of individual people impacted” was black, 11 percent of the time Latino, 20 percent white and 30 percent unknown.
— Armored personnel vehicles that local law enforcement agencies have received through grants from the Department of Homeland Security are most commonly used for drug raids and not school shootings and terrorist situations.
— In cases in which police cited the possible presence of a weapon in the home as a reason for utilizing a SWAT team, weapons were found only 35 percent of the time.
More: Report Points to ‘Dangerous Militarization’ of U.S. Law Enforcement : The Two-Way : NPR