COURTESY OF KARA DANSKY
THE SWAT-IFICATION
OF AMERICA
drug crimes. Police forces were
no longer reserving SWAT teams
and paramilitary tactics for
events that presented an immediate threat to the public. They
were now using them mostly
as an investigative tool in drug
cases, creating violent confrontations with people suspected of
nonviolent, consensual crimes.
It was during the Reagan administration that the SWATification of America really began to accelerate. Reagan (and
a compliant Congress) passed
policies encouraging cooperation
and mutual training between the
military and police agencies. The
president set up joint task forces
in which domestic cops and soldiers worked together on antidrug operations. And, with some
help from Congress, he nudged
the Pentagon to start loaning or
even giving surplus military gear
to law enforcement agencies.
Subsequent administrations continued all of these policies — and
a number of new ones.
After Reagan, new federal policies provided yet more incentive for militarization. In 1988,
Congress created the Byrne grant
program, which gives money to