Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces

The groundbreaking history of how police forces went to war with the American public, now updated to encompass the massive shift toward immigration enforcement and ICE raids.

“Fascinating and at times wrenching.” —The New Yorker

Recent years have seen tanks rolling through the streets of American cities, masked officers snatching parents from their children at school pickups, and chemical munitions deployed against peaceful citizens at close range. Law enforcement routinely confronts the public with violence on a scale that would have been scandalous just decades ago. In Rise of the Warrior Cop, investigative reporter Radley Balko uncovers how police were transformed into an occupying army. The wars on crime, drugs, and terror each empowered police forces at the expense of civil liberties. And under Trump, these powers have expanded in terrifying new ways.

Rise of the Warrior Cop is a fascinating, frightening narrative that shows how American police officers ended up on a collision course with the values of a free society.