The militarization of local law enforcement: is race a factor?

Abstract

Recent events have placed a spotlight on the increasing militarization of local law enforcement. While ample anecdotal evidence suggests a link between race and the militarization of police, empirical analysis has yet to be performed. In this study, I find that, conditional on crime rate, the presence of a large African-American population is negatively correlated to police acquisition of mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles. Conversely, greater residential segregation is positively correlated to MRAP procurement. This result highlights the problem with growing segregation, in suburbs as well as urban centres, in the United States.

Keywords:

• mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles
• race
• immigration
• military surplus

JEL Classification:

• K42
• J15

Notes

¹ ‘Why did San Diego Unified acquire an armored vehicle?’ http://inewsource.org/ (9 September 2014).

² This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed in the literature, especially in the criminology literature (Den Heyer, 2014).

³ NPR accessed records detailing items allocated by the Pentagon to local law enforcement agencies. Corresponding data indicate both equipment received and cost incurred by county (http://www.npr.org/2014/09/02/342494225/mraps-and-bayonets-what-we-know-about-the-pentagons-1033-program).

⁴ Table A1 shows the counties that have requested more than two MRAPs.

⁵ T is the total population, M is the number of ethnic groups m, J is the number of census tracts, I is Simpson’s interaction index (the Simpson’s interaction index is given by and measures basic diversity of a population), is the number of individuals in the census tract, is the proportion in group m, and is the proportion in group m in census tract j.

⁶ Urbanization is measured using Beale codes from the United States Department of Agriculture.

⁷ There is a potential concern with crime rate endogeneity. I therefore estimated an instrumental variables probit model in which I instrument for the crime rate using the percentage of the households that are female headed with no husband present and the percentage of the population that are male and between the ages of 20 and 24 (Sever and McSkimming, 2004). However, the Wald Test of exogeneity is not significant at the standard significance levels.