Radley Balko's "Rise of the Warrior Cop"

President Trump's use of federal law enforcement has been an outrageous feature of his second administration. During deployments in Washington D.C. and Portland, as well as ICE and CBP operations around the country, photos of masked agents and heavily armored police in full military gear have emerged. The New York Times recently provided a guide to the different types of agencies involved. I learned that there are over 60 federal agencies with their own law enforcement sections. I've also noticed that local police in places I've lived have also appeared more heavily armed and armored over the years.

From The New York Times. (2025, October 24). "How to Make Sense of the Federal Forces on the Streets."

Trump's latest actions aside, I'm generally wary of the role that law enforcement is playing in our national life. I've also wondered how, no matter the political environment, police seem to become more violent and less accountable.

Radley Balko has long reported on policing in the United States. I read the 2021 update of his most recent book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces (originally printed in 2013). Balko proceeds chronologically with some basic history of policing around the world and in the United States. He explains the Castle Doctrine and its roots in English common law as well as the historical context for the Third Amendment (onerous British laws such as the Quartering Act of 1765 were catalysts for the American Revolution). That amendment was a product of the Founders' distaste for military involvement with civilian affairs and their deep skepticism of standing armies.

Balko follows a long political thread, starting with Lyndon Johnson's attempts to address rising fears of crime in America and culminating in Nixon's escalation of the war on drugs. A lesson I took from this book is that both Democratic and Republican politicians have been happy to exploit public fear of crime, empowering law enforcement in problematic ways.

The rise of the SWAT team ("special weapons and tactics") is prominent in Balko's narrative. SWAT was initially conceived of as a way to counter violent situations such as Charles Whitman's 1966 murder spree at the University of Texas at Austin. The Watts Riots, rooted in years of racially-charged animosity between Black residents and the LA police, also led law enforcement officials to conceive of a different sort of policing unit. The formation of the first SWAT team in Los Angeles in late 1969 was followed by a proliferation of teams throughout the United States, even in small cities and municipalities. As the war on drugs accelerated, the primary use case for SWAT teams became serving drug warrants, particularly "no-knock" warrants.

Balko outlines the legal basis for law enforcement behavior as it has unfolded over the last 75 years. Despite some early rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court (1958's Miller v. U.S.), the legal pattern has been a clear degradation of the Castle Doctrine. For example, in Hudson v. Michigan, the Court ruled that evidence found in an illegal raid could still be used. In Kentucky v. King, the Court found that police can forcibly enter a home without a warrant if there are exigent circumstances (even if the police create them). In my novice reading of excerpts from these rulings, the justices had a naïve view of law enforcement's ability to police itself when abuses occurred, despite ample evidence to the contrary. I had believed that conservative justices would be wary of violent intrusion of the government into a citizen's home, but case after case showed that, if this was a consideration at all, it was overwhelmed by almost complete deference to law enforcement.

It took me much longer than I expected to read this book (it's currently overdue!). The major reason is that almost every chapter contains tragic examples of brutal, senseless police violence. These mostly took the form of SWAT raids that led to the grievous injury or death of innocent people. No matter how egregious the police error, accountability for police was usually non-existent (except for the occasional settlement against a municipality, ultimately paid for by the taxpayers). I was infuriated by the reckless approval of boilerplate warrants by judges, the denial of justice for clear victims of state violence, and asset forfeiture laws that encourage irresponsible use of SWAT teams against non-violent criminals and low-level drug users. I also found it hard to read about insane federal policies that have funneled billions of dollars worth of military equipment to local police agencies. This is really tough stuff—I honestly had to force myself to get through certain sections.

Balko ends this revised version with updated recommendations for police reform. Some reforms have been enacted since the first version of the text, including new laws against no- knock warrants in some states. But it was published before Trump's new administration. The "Big Beautiful Bill" alone provided $75 billion in funding to ICE (for some context, the entire annual military budget of the Israeli Defense Forces is just over $30 billion). The toxic cultures of certain federal law enforcement agencies, especially ICE and CBP, seem primed to attract exactly the kind of police we do not want serving the public.

As difficult as it was to read at times, I appreciated Balko's thoroughness. I wish that the problems of policing in the United States were better understood, especially since fear of crime—shamelessly exploited by politicians—has a tendency to overwhelm reason. Slogans such as "defund the police" are clearly misguided and are a ticket to political disaster in a country that still values police and is highly sensitive to even the perception of increased crime. We need politicians who support police at their best, while also holding them accountable. Crucially, our leaders must be able to communicate clearly and truthfully about crime as well as the consequences of reckless and needlessly violent policing.

It's true that the rash of killings by police in the 2010s (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, and on and on...) did raise awareness of these issues and led to some minor reform. Perhaps the new regime of federal law enforcement that Trump is intent on imposing on the country will eventually fuel more of the same.