WAR COMES HOME

The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

June 2014

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A

cross the country, heavily armed Special Weapons

and Tactics (SWAT) teams are forcing their way into
peoples homes in the middle of the night, often deploying
explosive devices such as ashbang grenades to temporarily
blind and deafen residents, simply to serve a search warrant
on the suspicion that someone may be in possession of
a small amount of drugs. Neighborhoods are not war
zones, and our police ofcers should not be treating us
like wartime enemies. However, the ACLU encountered
this type of story over and over when studying the
militarization of state and local law enforcement agencies.
This investigation gave us data to corroborate a trend we
have been noticing nationwide: American policing has
become unnecessarily and dangerously militarized, in
large part through federal programs that have armed state
and local law enforcement agencies with the weapons
and tactics of war, with almost no public discussion or
oversight.1 Using these federal funds, state and local law
enforcement agencies have amassed military arsenals
purportedly to wage the failed War on Drugs, the
battlegrounds of which have disproportionately been in
communities of color. But these arsenals are by no means
free of cost for communities. Instead, the use of hyperaggressive tools and tactics results in tragedy for civilians
and police ofcers, escalates the risk of needless violence,
destroys property, and undermines individual liberties.
This report provides a snapshot of the realities of
paramilitary policing, building on a body of existing work
demonstrating that police militarization is a pervasive
problem. Analyzing both existing secondary source
materials and primary source data uncovered through the
ACLUs public records investigation, this report examines
the use of SWAT teams by state and local law enforcement
agencies and other aspects of militaristic policing.2 As
explained in the Methodology section, our statistical
analysis included more than 800 SWAT deployments
conducted by 20 law enforcement agencies during the years
2011-2012.3

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SWAT was created to deal with emergency situations such

as hostage, barricade and active shooter scenarios. Over
time, however, law enforcement agencies have moved away
from this original purpose and are increasingly using these
paramilitary squads to search peoples homes for drugs.
Aggressive enforcement of the War on Drugs has lost
its public mandate, as 67 percent of Americans think
the government should focus more on treatment than
on policing and prosecuting drug users.4 This waning
public support is warranted, as evidence continues to
document how the War on Drugs has destroyed millions
of lives, unfairly impacted communities of color, made
drugs cheaper and more potent, caused countless deaths
of innocent people caught up in drug war-related armed
conict, and failed to eliminate drug dependence and
addiction. The routine use of heavily armed SWAT teams
to search peoples homes for drugs, therefore, means that
law enforcement agencies across the country are using this
hyper-aggressive form of domestic policing to ght a war
that has waning public support and has harmed, much
more than helped, communities.

Majority of SWAT Deployments

for Drug Searches (2011-2012)
DRUG SEARCHES 62%

OTHER 28%
UNKNOWN9%
Source: Data provided by local law enforcement agencies for ACLU
investigation.

SWAT raids are undoubtedly violent events: numerous

(often 20 or more) ofcers armed with assault ries
and grenades approach a home, break down doors and
windows (often causing property damage), and scream for
the people inside to get on the oor (often pointing their
guns at them). During the course of this investigation,
the ACLU determined that SWAT deployments often
and unnecessarily entailed the use of violent tactics and
equipment, including Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs),
and that the use of these tactics and equipment often
increased the risk of property damage and bodily harm.
Unnecessarily aggressive SWAT raids can have disastrous
consequences, including injury and death. The ACLU also
uncovered numerous instances in which SWAT teams
deployed when there were children present (and some in
which the SWAT team knew in advance that children would
be present).
To scale back the militarization of police, it is important to
document how law enforcement agencies have stockpiled
their arsenals. Law enforcement agencies have become
equipped to carry out these SWAT missions in part by
federal programs such as the Department of Defenses 1033
Program, the Department of Homeland Securitys grants
to local law enforcement agencies, and the Department of
Justices Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant
(JAG) Program, each of which is examined in this report.
De-escalating militarized policing will also require
analysis of how the presence of these weapons and tactics
has impacted policing culture. Our analysis shows that
the militarization of American policing is evident in the
training that police ofcers receive, which encourages them
to adopt a warrior mentality and think of the people
they are supposed to serve as enemies, as well as in the
equipment they use, such as battering rams, ashbang
grenades, and APCs. This shift in culture has been buoyed
by the U.S. Supreme Courts weakening of the Fourth
Amendment (which protects the right to privacy in ones
home) through a series of decisions that have given the
police increased authority to force their way into peoples
homes, often in drug cases.
Additionally, solving the problem of police militarization
requires discussion of how SWAT teams should be

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In the ACLUs study, SWAT teams forced entry into

a persons home using a battering ram or other
breaching device in 65% of drug searches.

Militarization of policing
encourages ofcers to
adopt a warrior mentality
and think of the people they
are supposed to serve as
enemies.
appropriately used and when their deployment is
counterproductive and dangerous. Even though
paramilitary policing in the form of SWAT teams was
created to deal with emergency scenarios such as hostage
or barricade situations, the use of SWAT to execute search
warrants in drug investigations has become commonplace
and made up the overwhelming majority of incidents
the ACLU reviewed79 percent of the incidents the
ACLU studied involved the use of a SWAT team to search
a persons home, and more than 60 percent of the cases
involved searches for drugs. The use of a SWAT team to
execute a search warrant essentially amounts to the use
of paramilitary tactics to conduct domestic criminal
investigations in searches of peoples homes.

War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

Majority of SWAT Deployments for

Search Warrants(2011-2012)
WARRANT
SEARCH WARRANT 79%

OTHER17%
UNKNOWN4%
Source: Data provided by local law enforcement agencies for ACLU
investigation.

The use of SWAT teams to serve search warrants could

perhaps be justied if there were reason to believe that
these situations truly presented a genuine threat to ofcer
safety, but that did not appear to be the case from the
documents that the ACLU examined; of the incidents
in which ofcers believed a weapon would be present,
a weapon (typically a rearm such as a handgun but
rarely an assault rie) was actually found at the scene
in only 35 percent of cases. Even when ofcers believed
a weapon was likely to be present, that belief was often
unsubstantiated. Unfortunately, reasonable standards for
deploying SWAT teams appear to be virtually nonexistent.
Further, given that almost half of American households

An estimated 500 law

enforcement agencies have
received Mine Resistant
Ambush Protected (MRAP)
vehicles built to withstand
armor-piercing roadside
bombs.
4

American Civil Liberties Union

have guns, use of a SWAT team could almost always be

justied if the presence of a rearm was the sole factor
determining whether to deploy.5 However, because the use
of SWAT increases the likelihood that the occupants will
use weapons to defend themselves, which increases the
risk of violence, presence of a weapon alone should not
automatically result in a SWAT deployment.
These problems have been allowed to occur in the absence
of public oversight. Data collection has been sparse and
inadequate: among the law enforcement agencies studied,
the ACLU found that data collecting and reporting in the
context of SWAT was at best sporadic and at worst virtually
nonexistent.
In addition, there is typically no single entity at the local,
state, or federal level responsible for ensuring that SWAT is
appropriately restrained and that policing does not become
excessively militarized. Maryland passed a law in 2010
requiring local law enforcement agencies to submit regular
reports on their use of SWAT, but that law will sunset
this year. Utah passed a similar law this year, which looks
promising, but much more oversight is needed.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., has announced broad
criminal justice reforms, including guidelines to curtail
the use of mandatory minimum sentencing laws by federal
prosecutors in certain drug cases and a $4.75 million
project funded by the federal government and designed
to ease mistrust between local police departments and
minority communities by collecting and studying data on
searches, arrests, and case outcomes in order to help assess
the impact of possible bias. These developments have real
potential to reduce Americas excessive reliance on overly
aggressive approaches to policing and punishing drug
crimes, but there is a danger that these federally-funded
efforts could be undermined by the federal governments
role in subsidizing the use of paramilitary weapons and
tactics in localities, particularly in many communities
of color. Without rethinking its role in militarizing local
police departments, the federal government may end up
sabotaging the very same reforms it is championing.
From our review of both primary and secondary source
materials, we are able to present two sets of ndings: one
set of general ndings based on our review of the existing

research, which our data supports, and one set of timebound specic ndings from our statistical analysis of the
raw data we collected in connection with our investigation.
Our general ndings, based on our review of existing
research and supported by our data, are the following:
1. Policingparticularly through the use of paramilitary
teamsin the United States today has become
excessively militarized, mainly through federal
programs that create incentives for state and local
police to use unnecessarily aggressive weapons and
tactics designed for the battleeld. For example, the
ACLU documented a total of 15,054 items of battle
uniforms or personal protective equipment received
by 63 responding agencies during the relevant time
period, and it is estimated that 500 law enforcement
agencies have received Mine Resistant Ambush
Protected (MRAP) vehicles built to withstand armorpiercing roadside bombs through the Department of
Defenses 1033 Program.6
2. The militarization of policing in the United States has
occurred with almost no public oversight. Not a single
law enforcement agency in this investigation provided
records containing all of the information that the
ACLU believes is necessary to undertake a thorough
examination of police militarization. Some agencies
provided records that were nearly totally lacking in
important information. Agencies that monitor and
provide oversight over the militarization of policing
are virtually nonexistent.
Our more specic ndings from the statistical analysis we
conducted of time-bound raw data received in connection
with this investigation are the following:
3. SWAT teams were often deployedunnecessarily and
aggressivelyto execute search warrants in low-level
drug investigations; deployments for hostage or
barricade scenarios occurred in only a small number
of incidents. The majority (79 percent) of SWAT
deployments the ACLU studied were for the purpose
of executing a search warrant, most commonly in drug
investigations. Only a small handful of deployments (7
percent) were for hostage, barricade, or active shooter
scenarios.

CASUALTY REPORT
LIMA, OHIO
JANUARY, 2008

SWAT Ofcers Kill 26Year-Old Mother Holding

Infant Son

arika Wilson wasnt

the suspect. She died
when SWAT oficers broke
down her front door and
opened ire into her home.
Ms. Wilson was holding her
14-month-old son when
she was shot. The baby was
injured, but survived. The
SWAT team had been looking for Ms. Wilsons
boyfriend on suspicion of drug dealing when
they raided Ms. Wilsons rented house on the
Southside of Lima, the only city with a signiicant
African-American population in a region of
farmland.

4. The use of paramilitary weapons and tactics primarily

impacted people of color; when paramilitary tactics
were used in drug searches, the primary targets were
people of color, whereas when paramilitary tactics
were used in hostage or barricade scenarios, the
primary targets were white. Overall, 42 percent of
people impacted by a SWAT deployment to execute
a search warrant were Black and 12 percent were
Latino. This means that of the people impacted by
deployments for warrants, at least 54 percent were
minorities. Of the deployments in which all the people
impacted were minorities, 68 percent were in drug
cases, and 61 percent of all the people impacted by
SWAT raids in drug cases were minorities. In addition,
the incidents we studied revealed stark, often extreme,
racial disparities in the use of SWAT locally, especially
in cases involving search warrants.

War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

INCIDENT REPORT
HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA
OCTOBER 14, 2011

SWAT Team Throws

Flashbang into Home
of Pregnant Woman

nowing there would likely be a pregnant

woman inside, a SWAT team still opted to
break down the door of a home and throw a
lashbang grenade inside in order to execute
a search warrant in a drug case. Once inside
the home, SWAT oficers found one man,
one pregnant woman, and a four-year-old
child. While this particular report contained
no information about the race of the people
impacted by the deployment, the majority of
the Huntington SWAT deployments the ACLU
studied were conducted in connection with drug
investigations, and the majority of the people
impacted were Black.

5. SWAT deployments often and unnecessarily entailed

the use of violent tactics and equipment, including
armored personnel carriers; use of violent tactics and
equipment was shown to increase the risk of bodily
harm and property damage. Of the incidents studied
in which SWAT was deployed to search for drugs in
a persons home, the SWAT teams either forced or
probably forced entry into a persons home using a
battering ram or other breaching device 65 percent
of the time. For drug investigations, the SWAT teams
studied were almost twice as likely to force entry into
a persons home than not, and they were more than
twice as likely to use forced entry in drug investigations
than in other cases. In some instances, the use of
violent tactics and equipment caused property damage,
injury, and/or death.

American Civil Liberties Union

Reform must be systemic; the

problems of overly aggressive
policing are cultural and
cannot be solved by merely
identifying a few bad apples
or dismissing the problem as
a few isolated incidents.
Reform must be systemic; the problems of overly aggressive
policing are cultural and cannot be solved by merely
identifying a few bad apples or dismissing the problem as
a few isolated incidents.
To begin to solve the problem of overly militarized
policing, reform must happen at all levels of government
that have contributed to this trend.
The federal government should take the lead by reining
in the programs that create incentives for local police
to engage in excessively militarized tactics, especially
in drug cases. The federal government holds the purse
strings, and easing the ow of federal funds and militarygrade equipment into states and localities would have
a signicant impact on the overuse of hyper-aggressive
tactics and military-grade tools in local communities.
Additionally, state legislatures and municipalities should
impose meaningful restraints on the use of SWAT.
SWAT deployments should be limited to the kinds of
scenarios for which these aggressive measures were
originally intended: barricade, hostage, and active shooter
situations. Rather than allow a SWAT deployment in
any case that is deemed (for whatever reason the ofcers
determine) to be high risk, the better practice would
be for law enforcement agencies to have in place clear
standards limiting SWAT deployments to scenarios that are
truly high risk.

SWAT teams should never be deployed based solely on

probable cause to believe drugs are present, even if they
have a warrant to search a home. In addition, SWAT teams
should not equate the suspected presence of drugs with a
threat of violence. SWAT deployment for warrant service
is appropriate only if the police can demonstrate, before
deployment, that ordinary law enforcement ofcers cannot
safely execute a warrant without facing an imminent threat
of serious bodily harm. In making these determinations, it
is important to take into consideration the fact that use of
a SWAT team can escalate rather than ameliorate potential
violence; law enforcement should take appropriate
precautions to avoid the use of SWAT whenever possible.
In addition, all SWAT deployments, regardless of the
underlying purpose, should be proportionalnot all
situations call for a SWAT deployment consisting of 20
heavily armed ofcers in an APC, and partial deployments
should be encouraged when appropriate.
Local police departments should develop their own
internal policies calling for appropriate restraints on the
use of SWAT and should avoid all training programs that
encourage a warrior mindset.
Finally, the public has a right to know how law enforcement
agencies are policing its communities and spending its
tax dollars. The militarization of American policing has
occurred with almost no oversight, and it is time to shine
a bright light on the policies, practices, and weaponry that
have turned too many of our neighborhoods into war
zones.

War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

INTRODUCTION

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magine that you are at home with your family, sleeping

soundly in the early morning hours. You awaken suddenly
to a loud explosion and the sound of glass shattering. A
bright light blinds you and there is a terrible ringing in your
ears. You cannot see anything, but through the ringing you
hear the harrowing sound of your front door being broken
down as your children begin to scream in the next room. As
you come to your senses, you look outside your window and
see what appears to be a tank in your driveway. Suddenly,
peopleyou have no idea how manybreak through
your bedroom door. In the darkness, all you can see is that
they are wearing black and carrying assault ries, and their
faces are masked. You hear people yelling at you and your
partner to get on the oor and put your hands behind your
back. Your children are still screaming in the next room and
your dog is barking loudly. The people lead you, wearing
whatever you wore to sleep that night, into the living room,
pointing assault ries at you the entire time. You are ordered
to sit, and someone quickly handcuffs you to the chair.
More people then bring your partner and your children into
the living room at gunpoint. Your dog is still barking, and

12 American Civil Liberties Union

one of the people shoots it, killing it instantly, in front of

you and your children. They then proceed to ransack your
home, breaking down doors and shattering windows. You
can see that the explosion you heard earlier came from a
grenade that now lies near your feet, scorch marks covering
the oor from the blast. They hold you and your family at
gunpoint for the next several hours, refusing to answer any
questions about why they are there or what they are looking
for. Once they have nally left, you nd your home in
shambles. Broken glass litters the oor, and doors are broken
from where the police kicked holes in them. Your dog lies
breathless in a pool of its own blood. Tables are overturned,
papers are strewn about, and electronic equipment has been
ripped from the walls and left on the oor. Your partner is
desperately trying to calm your hysterical children.
Unfortunately, this is not a scene from an action movie, and
it did not happen during the course of a protracted battle in
an overseas war. This is the militarization of our state and
local police, and events like this are happening every day in
homes throughout America.

Massive Military-Grade
Weapons Caches in Arizona

he police department in Maricopa County, Arizona

led by the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a .50
caliber machine gun that shoots bullets powerful enough
to blast through the buildings on multiple city blocks.
Thats not all: the department has stockpiled a combined
total of 120 assault ries, ve armored vehicles, and ten
helicopters. This arsenal was acquired mainly through the
Department of Defenses 1033 program, which transfers
military-grade weaponry to state and local police
departments, free of charge.
Maricopa County is not unique. According to our
research, law enforcement agencies in Arizona have
acquired a staggering cache of military weaponry,
primarily through the 1033 program, including:

32 bomb suits

704 units of night vision equipment, e.g., nightvision goggles

1034 guns, of which 712 are ries

42 forced entry tools, such as battering rams

830 units of surveillance and reconnaissance

equipment

120 utility trucks

64 armored vehicles

4 GPS devices

17 helicopters

A great deal of military-grade equipment in Arizona is

ostensibly obtained for purposes of securing the U.S.
border with Mexico, but the track record of federal grant
programs suggests that this equipment may well be
diverted to other activities, such as the investigations and
warrants detailed elsewhere in this report. The bottom
line is that Arizona law enforcement agencies at and well
beyond the actual border have become unnecessarily
and dangerously militarized. The Pinal County Sheriff s
ofce, for example, obtained 94 ries, two armored
vehicles, and three helicopters. The Coconino County
Sheriff s ofce obtained six armored vehicles, and the
Mojave County Sheriff s ofce has four helicopters.
Arizona law enforcement, designed to serve and protect
communities, is instead equipped to wage a war.

13,409 personal protective equipment (PPE)

and/or uniforms

All 1033 equipment coming into Arizona goes through

the Payson Police Department and makes its way to
state and local law enforcement agencies. A two-year
investigation by the Arizona Republic revealed that one
local agency, the Pinal County Sheriff s Ofce, doled
out millions of dollars worth of military equipment to
non-law enforcement agencies and planned to auction
off some of its arsenal to raise revenue for itself.

21,211 other types of military equipment

Arming border communities for battle gives the

ACLU serious cause for concern. For more on why the
militarization of the United States-Mexican border is
dangerous and counter-productive, see ACLU, Border
Communities Under Siege: Border Patrol Agents Ride
Roughshod Over Civil Rights.

War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing 13

SWAT Raid Ends with Toddler

in Medically-Induced Coma

fter the Phonesavanh familys home in Wisconsin

burned down, they drove their minivan to stay with
relatives in a small town just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
On the back windshield, the family pasted six stick gures:
a dad, a mom, three young girls, and one baby boy.
This van, containing several car seats, was parked in the
driveway of the home where they were staying when, just
before 3:00am on a night in May of 2014, a team of SWAT
ofcers armed with assault ries burst into the room where
the family was sleeping. Some of the kids toys were in the
front yard, but the Habersham County and Cornelia police
ofcers claimed they had no way of knowing children might
be present. One of the ofcers threw a ashbang grenade
into the room. It landed in Baby Bou Bous crib.

My three little girls are

terried of the police now.
They dont want to go to
sleep because theyre
afraid the cops will kill
them or their family.

The crib where Baby Bou Bou was sleeping, damaged

by an exploding lashbang grenade.

This is about race. You dont

see SWAT teams going into
a white collar community,
throwing grenades into their
homes.
Alecia Phonesavanh
raid, it was still unclear whether Baby Bou Bou would live.
Bounkahm spent this Fathers Day in the hospital with his
son.

Alecia Phonesavanh
It took several hours before Alecia and Bounkahm, the
babys parents, were able to see their son. The 19-month-old
had been taken to an intensive burn unit and placed into
a medically induced coma. When the ashbang grenade
exploded, it blew a hole in 19-month-old Bou Bous face
and chest. The chest wound was so deep it exposed his ribs.
The blast covered Bou Bous body in third degree burns. At
the time of this reports publication, three weeks after the

14 American Civil Liberties Union

The SWAT team was executing a no knock warrant to

search for someone who did not live in the home that was
raided: Bounkahms nephew, who was suspected of making
a $50 drug sale. After breaking down the door, throwing
my husband to the ground, and screaming at my children,
the ofcersarmed with M16sled through the house
like they were playing war, said Alecia. The ofcers did not
nd any guns or drugs in the house and no arrests were
made. Bounkahms nephew was eventually arrested without

Bounkham Phonesavanh, nicknamed Baby Bou

Bou, loves French fries, the theme song from
Frozen, and playing with his three older sisters.

incident at another location, holding a small amount of

drugs on him.
Bounkahm, the babys father, was born in Laos during
wartime. He remembers communist soldiers breaking down
the door of his childhood home. It felt like that, he said.
This is America and youre supposed to be safe here, but
youre not even safe around the cops.
The Phonesavanhs have three daughters who are now scared
to go to bed at night. One night after the raid, their 8-yearold woke up in the middle of the night screaming, No, dont
kill him! Youre hurting my brother! Dont kill him. Alecia
and Bounkahm used to tell their kids that if they were ever in
trouble, they should go to the police for help. My three little
girls are terried of the police now. They dont want to go to
sleep because theyre afraid the cops will kill them or their
family, Alecia said.

Bounkahm and Alecia spent the three weeks

following the raid at the hospital. At the time
the report was published, their son was still in a
medically-induced coma.

After breaking down

the door, throwing my
husband to the ground,
and screaming at my
children, the ofcers
armed with M16sled
through the house like
they were playing war.
Alecia Phonesavanh

When asked about the prevalence of SWAT raids to ght

the War on Drugs, Alecia told us, This is all about race and
class. You dont see SWAT teams going into a white collar
community, throwing grenades into their homes.
Learn more at www.justiceforbabyboubou.com.

War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing 15