War on Drugs Policing and Police Brutality

Abstract

Background: War on Drugs policing has failed to reduce domestic street-level drug activity: the cost of drugs remains low and drugs remain widely available. Objectives: In light of growing attention to police brutality in the United States, this paper explores interconnections between specific War on Drugs policing strategies and police-related violence against Black adolescents and adults in the United States. Methods: This paper reviews literature about (1) historical connections between race/ethnicity and policing in the United States; (2) the ways that the War on Drugs eroded specific legal protections originally designed to curtail police powers; and (3) the implications of these erosions for police brutality targeting Black communities. Results: Policing and racism have been mutually constitutive in the United States. Erosions to the 4th Amendment to the Constitution and to the Posse Comitatus Act set the foundations for two War on Drugs policing strategies: stop and frisk and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. These strategies have created specific conditions conducive to police brutality targeting Black communities. Conclusions/Importance: War on Drugs policing strategies appear to increase police brutality targeting Black communities, even as they make little progress in reducing street-level drug activity. Several jurisdictions are retreating from the War on Drugs; this retreat should include restoring rights originally protected by the 4th Amendment and Posse Comitatus. While these legal changes occur, police chiefs should discontinue the use of SWAT teams to deal with low-level nonviolent drug offenses and should direct officers to cease engaging in stop and frisk.

Keywords:

• police brutality
• War on Drugs
• racism
• violence
• policy analysis

GLOSSARY

• Police Brutality: The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies police brutality as a form of violence, and defines violence itself as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.” According to WHO, there are four types of violence: physical, sexual, psychological, and neglectful. While police officers are empowered to use force, they should use the minimal amount of force needed to “control an incident, effect an arrest, or protect themselves or others from harm or death,” according to the National Institute of Justice.

• The 4th Amendment: Part of the Bill of Rights, Amendment IV asserts that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

• The Posse Comitatus Act: Passed in 1878, the Posse Comitatus Act made it a felony for the Armed Forces to perform the law enforcement duties of the civilian police.

• Stop and Frisk: Officers are permitted to stop a civilian if they reasonably suspect, based on articulable facts, that the civilian is currently engaging in criminal activity or has engaged in criminal activity. The officer may frisk (i.e., search) the stopped individual if the officer reasonably suspects that the person is armed and dangerous to allow the officer to continue the investigation free of fear of violence. Over time the threshold for a stop and frisk has lowered.

• Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams: SWAT teams are heavily militarized police units that were originally designed to deal with hostage situations and terrorist attacks. One of their primary purposes now is to serve warrants for narcotic offenses, often low-level drug possession.

Notes

¹ The reader is referred to a useful review about “cause and effect” underpinnings. Hills's criteria for causation were developed in order to help assist researchers and clinicians determine if risk factors were causes of a particular disease or outcomes or merely associated. (Hill, A. B. (1965). The environment and disease: associations or causation? Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 58: 295–300.). Editor's note.

² Jim Crow laws in southern states established de jure segregation of Blacks from Whites in public facilities and were instrumental in maintaining White supremacy after the fall of slavery.

³ To meet the probable cause standard, “… the facts and circumstances within the officers’ knowledge, and of which they have reasonably trustworthy information, [must be] sufficient in themselves to warrant a belief by a man of reasonable caution that a crime is being committed.” (Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 1949).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hannah LF Cooper

Hannah LF Cooper, ScD (USA), is an associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education and in the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. Much of her work is on the structural determinants of health, including drug use and HIV.