THE AMERICAN POLICE PARAMILITARY UNIT: AN ANALYSIS OF SWAT AS AN AGGRESSIVE POLICING STRATEGY by Brian P. Mello A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The College for Design and Social Inquiry In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida August 2016 Copyright 2016 by Brian P. Mello ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank his committee board members for all their help and guidance throughout every step of this extensive process. I would like to especially thank Dr. Adam Dobrin for his advice, professional insight and continuous support along the way. His genuine interest in the subject and critical thinking helped make this thesis the best it could be. I am sincerely thankful for all the additional time Dr. Rachel Boba Santos put in throughout this past year. Without her help in creating the conceptual foundation of this research study and her Advanced Research Methods course, this thesis would not have been half as good. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. William Hauser for his unparalleled assistance throughout the data analysis section. His comprehensive emails and statistical knowledge helped create the best possible analysis of the final thesis database. I would like to thank my parents for their steadfast support throughout this Master’s program and thesis development. I genuinely thank them for providing me the opportunity to earn this degree. iv ABSTRACT Author: Brian P. Mello Title: The American Police Paramilitary Unit: An Analysis of SWAT as an Aggressive Policing Strategy Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Adam Dobrin Degree: Master of Science Year: 2016 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. v THE AMERICAN POLICE PARAMILITARY UNIT: AN ANALYSIS OF SWAT AS AN AGGRESSIVE POLICING STRATEGY LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 Background ......................................................................................................................1 Problem Statement ..........................................................................................................2 Thesis Goal ......................................................................................................................3 Summary .........................................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................7 Introduction ......................................................................................................................7 History of the Militarization of American Police .............................................................8 Historical Evidence ......................................................................................................8 Transformation of Law Enforcement .........................................................................11 Consequences of Militarization ..................................................................................12 The Development of SWAT ..............................................................................................13 SWAT Origins ............................................................................................................14 Waco, Texas ...............................................................................................................15 Governmental Funding ...............................................................................................16 Implementation of Proactive Paramilitary Officers ...........................................................16 Patrol Paramilitary Policing........................................................................................17 Police Paramilitary Units ............................................................................................18 vi Consequences of Militarization ..................................................................................19 Review of the Research .....................................................................................................19 Militarism and Militarization......................................................................................20 National Police Paramilitary Unit Activity ................................................................21 Characteristics of Police Paramilitary Unit Personnel ...............................................23 Modern Police Paramilitary Units ..............................................................................25 The Need for Police Paramilitary Units .....................................................................26 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................27 Research Questions.....................................................................................................29 Research Question 1 ..............................................................................................29 Research Question 2 ..............................................................................................29 Research Question 3 ..............................................................................................29 Research Question 4 ..............................................................................................30 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................................31 Introduction ....................................................................................................................31 Data Collection ...............................................................................................................31 Maryland SWAT Team Reports .................................................................................31 Crime in Maryland Reports ........................................................................................33 The United States Census Bureau ..............................................................................34 Database .....................................................................................................................34 Variables .........................................................................................................................37 Dependent Variables ..................................................................................................38 Independent Variables ................................................................................................39 vii Analytic Strategy ............................................................................................................41 Mixed Linear Models .................................................................................................42 Fixed Effects Models and Random Effects Models ...................................................42 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS ....................................................................................47 Introduction ....................................................................................................................47 Descriptive Statistics ......................................................................................................47 Descriptive Tables ......................................................................................................48 Measures of Central Tendency ...................................................................................52 Research Question 1 .......................................................................................................55 Research Question 2 .......................................................................................................58 Research Question 3 .......................................................................................................60 Research Question 4 .......................................................................................................63 Summary of Findings .....................................................................................................66 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS ...........................................................69 Discussion of Findings ...................................................................................................69