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The American Police Paramilitary Unit: An Analysis of SWAT as an Aggressive Policing Strategy

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Date Issued:
2016
Summary:
This research study examines the American paramilitary units know as Special Weapons and Tactics. Throughout this thesis, the fundamental and foundational research on police paramilitary units is presented and discussed. Additionally, this paper focuses on trends of militarization in American policing. Mainly, these trends are identified by the tremendous rise and normalization of American paramilitary police units since the internal societal wars of the 1970s. In this study, research is presented on Special Weapons and Tactics team deployments in the state of Maryland. Four years of data are analyzed focusing on proactive search warrant crime deployments from 2010 through 2013. Several independent variables including, violent crime rates, property crime rates, vice type crime rates and the number of sworn law enforcement officers are examined. The most important finding of this study is the inverse relationship between proactive vice type arrests and the proactive search warrant SWAT team deployments.
Title: The American Police Paramilitary Unit: An Analysis of SWAT as an Aggressive Policing Strategy.
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Name(s): Mello, Brian P., author
Dobrin, Adam L., Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
College for Design and Social Inquiry
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2016
Date Issued: 2016
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 96 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This research study examines the American paramilitary units know as Special Weapons and Tactics. Throughout this thesis, the fundamental and foundational research on police paramilitary units is presented and discussed. Additionally, this paper focuses on trends of militarization in American policing. Mainly, these trends are identified by the tremendous rise and normalization of American paramilitary police units since the internal societal wars of the 1970s. In this study, research is presented on Special Weapons and Tactics team deployments in the state of Maryland. Four years of data are analyzed focusing on proactive search warrant crime deployments from 2010 through 2013. Several independent variables including, violent crime rates, property crime rates, vice type crime rates and the number of sworn law enforcement officers are examined. The most important finding of this study is the inverse relationship between proactive vice type arrests and the proactive search warrant SWAT team deployments.
Identifier: FA00004728 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Law enforcement -- United States
Militarization of police -- United States
Police -- Special weapons and tactics units -- United States
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Links: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004728
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004728
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.