With free equipment in plentiful supply, Special Weapons and Tactics teams have sprung up across the country, one of the most obvious examples of these programs directly militarizing police work. As investigative reporter Radley Balko points out, once you have a SWAT team you want to use it, which is clear from the nearly 150 SWAT raids that happen every day in the United States. Once formed and armed, the SWAT teams are often utilized not for crises or emergencies, but for routine police work such as low-level drug raids.

Even federal administrative agencies are employing SWAT-like special agents to conduct their law enforcement operations. The most shocking example occurred in 2011, when federal agents resembling SWAT officers forcefully executed a search warrant on a man’s home. The man was roughly detained, along with his three young children, for many hours. Imagine the man’s surprise upon learning that the agents were from the Department of Education.

When the Department of Education has a SWAT team, a small-town sheriff operates a drone and a college campus has an MRAP, it is time to re-examine what exactly it means to protect and serve. To be sure, police officers require certain vital safety equipment, and circumstances do arise in the course of law enforcement that demand enhanced security measures. But policies which conflate law enforcement with military might threaten individual civil liberties and the true security of communities.