THE MILITARIZATION OF POLICING IN THE INFORMATION AGE

The concept of the 'militarization' of policing has traditionally focused on the way in which military discourse and organizational models have shaped the public police. Generally overlooked in such accounts are the broader social implications of the military's commitment to developing and using high technology. Contemporary military technologies extend well beyond lethal artifacts to include a complex infrastructure of machines for visualization and computation. Such tools spread into wider society either through a 'trickle down' process or a more 'directed' model of dispersion where the state takes an active role in seeking civilian uses for such technologies. One consequence of the global political transformations in the past decade has been the active attempt by the U.S. government to institutionalize a closer military/policing technological establishment. The broad social remit of the police, combined with their commitment to an actuarial model of policing, have made them a valuable site in which to legitimate the 'dual use' character or military technologies. Consequently, the police have been singled out as the potential beneficiary of a multitude of advanced technologies whose genesis can be traced directly to military requirements. Although these tools are often prohibitively expensive, we conclude by suggesting several reasons why is it likely that public funds will be found to develop and institutionalize these new military/policing technological initiatives.