The real cost of militarized police

Governments spend more than $300 billion a year on criminal justice. But the "us versus them" mentality in many police departments has untold costs.

Several years ago my son, who is now nine, told me he was afraid of police. I was surprised because his only direct experiences had been positive. His preschool once had visitors from the local fire and police department (although I’m pretty sure all he remembered from that was getting to go inside a firetruck). Another time, we were at a Panera Bread and a county cop wandered in with a couple of Beanie Babies he was looking to give away and gave one to my son.

So why was he afraid? It’s the uniforms, he said. They’re loaded with gear and generally scary-looking. This very true observation has stuck with me because it’s illustrative of a larger issue us adults been talking about for years: the militarization of police and the “us versus them” relationship that creates. Last month’s horrific beating of Tyre Nichols, who later died from his injuries, is in part a result of this dangerous and deathly mindset.

What does this have to do with public spending? Everything. 

What our criminal justice system really costs us

By my back-of-the-napkin calculation, I’d estimate we spend around a half-trillion a year on criminal justice’s direct and indirect costs. Here’s what I’m basing that on.

State and local governments spend $123 billion on police, $82 billion on corrections and $50 billion on courts each year, according to data analyzed by the Urban Institute. That amounts to an average of about 8% of total direct spending, or $255 billion. When you add in federal government expenditures, the total annual spending on our criminal justice system tops $300 billion.

The growth in police spending has been in line with growth in other types of expenditures. But spending on corrections has grown faster than any other major spending category since the 1980s, which ushered in more punitive measures for drug offenders.

Source: Urban Institute

Then in 1990, a provision in the National Defense Authorizations Act allowed the DOD to transfer military surplus (bayonets, grenade launchers, tactical vehicles, night-vision goggles, etc.) to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Since then, the DOD has transferred over $7 billion worth in equipment and weaponry to 8,600 law enforcement agencies.

Governments also spend millions on police misconduct settlements. Chicago, for example, spent $642 million on such settlements over 12 years.

Those are some of the main direct costs for governments. But people end up paying more. The growth in the United States incarceration rate coincided with increased class disparities that have resulted from reduced labor market opportunities, high concentrations of poverty in urban neighborhoods, and the deterioration of social services. Consider:

• Fines and fees, 

• Our extremely flawed system for cash bail, 

• And the economic opportunity cost of incarceration. 

In a California Law Review article, Amna A. Akba points out how some cities rely on policing to generate revenue. In Ferguson, Missouri, municipal court fines made up roughly 20% of the city budget in 2013 and were the largest stream of revenue after sales tax.

“This is more than a financial burden on the poor,” she wrote, noting that roughly 10 million people owe more than $50 billion in criminal legal debt. “The emotional, psychological, familial, and communal toll is incalculable.”

The societal cost of a militarized police culture

I don’t have to tell you that all these costs disproportionately fall on African Americans, who are six times more likely to be incarcerated than whites.

“Nearly a thousand people (disproportionately people of color) are fatally shot each year by police officers,” according to a 2021 Columbia Law Review article. “And the pathologies of policing extend well beyond killings: excessive force, invasive stops, militarized terror, and more.”