NovDec Associate Magazine.2018.

I n July 1995, I started my law enforcement career as a local police officer. Once I graduated from the police academy, I was assigned to the uniformed patrol division. My standard issued police uni- form was called LAPD blue because it resembled the blue uniform worn by the Los Angeles Police Department Patrol Division. During my four years employed as a local police officer and while on duty dressed in my police uniform, I was never mistaken as a soldier. In June 1999, I started my law enforcement career as a fed- eral law enforcement officer. Once I graduated from the federal law enforcement academy, I wasn’t issued a standard police uni- form. Instead, I was issued a tactical police uniform that consisted of a black protective outer vest with gold police insignia, gray BDU pants, and standard police duty belt with standard police equip- ment such as handcuffs, collapsible baton, and pepper spray. Al- though my tactical police uniformwas different from that of my pa- trol officer uniform, I was still easily identifiable as a police officer. Today many law enforcement agencies throughout the Unit- ed States now issue a military-styled camouflaged uniform for their specialized tactical units such as SWAT and SRT. Many tacti- cal units have moved toward the multi-cam tactical police uniform that resembles the uniform worn by the U.S. military. According to Johnson (2017) research has suggested that “clothing has a powerful impact on how people are perceived, and this goes for the police officer as well. The uniform of a police officer has been found to have a profound psychological impact on those who view it.” Gene Veith (2014) noted in his article “The problem with Cops in Camo,” U.S. citizens who live in a free society inherently have a fear that the military could be turned into a military force against its people. Veith noted that “when local police dress up like sol- diers, the perception–indeed, the meaning–is that the community is under military occupation from its own government.” When I entered the law enforcement profession, I entered it because I felt an inherent duty to serve and protect the public just like the police officers I imagined on the fictional television series Adam-12. I never entered the law enforcement profession to be perceived by the public as a soldier. When the U.S. tactical police uniform resembles the U.S. military uniform, it causes confusion among the citizenry. It undermines the community-oriented po- lice image of a public servant and replaces it with the image of a soldier. By investing in a traditional tactical police uniform, law enforcement leaders can reshape the “profound psychological impact” on its citizenry spoken of by Johnson (2017) from an im- age of M.A.S.H back to the image of Adam-12 . References Johnson, R. (2017, August 11) The psychological influence of the police uniform. Retrieved from https://www.policeone.com/police-products/apparel/uniforms/ articles/99417-The-psychological-influence-of-the-police-uniform/ Veith, Gene (2014, August 18) The problem with cops in camo. Retrieved from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2014/08/the-problem-with-cops-in-camo/ About the Author: Brian Cole is a Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Oakland, California. SSA Cole holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Alabama and a MSCJ in Criminal Justice from the Uni- versity of Alabama at Birmingham. SSA Cole was previously employed as a police officer with the Montgomery Police Department in Montgomery, Alabama.

BRIAN COLE THE MILITARIZATION OF THE TACTICAL POLICE UNIFORM As a child growing up in the 1980s, I always knew what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to be a police officer. More specifically, I wanted to be a federal lawenforcement officer – FBI, DEA, U.S. Marshal, or U.S. Secret Ser- vice agent. But I was also heavily in- fluenced toward pursuing a military career because my father had served in theU.S. Army inVietnam. As a child growing up I easily distinguished the difference between a police officer and a soldier. The police officer wore blue and the soldier wore green. Popular Hollywood television series I watched as a child such as Adam-12 and MASH also associated blue with the police and green with the U.S. Military. Hence, as I child I had al- ready developed an image of what a police officer and soldier looked like based on their uniforms.

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