From Broken Windows to Broken Bonds: Militarized Police and Social Fragmentation

The recent expansion of police militarization in the US has led to a growing concern about the social impact from this development, and in particular, how militarized policing impacts minority communities. Nearly six billion dollars of military equipment has been transferred to local police departments through the Department of Defense Excess Property Program 1033 since its inception in 1997. In this paper, we study the impact of police militarization on civic engagement by studying charitable giving among households. Using an instrumental variables approach based on exposure to military culture through federal defense spending, we find that police militarization has a fragmenting effect on society. As police militarization increases, black households reduce the frequency and amount of charitable donations as well as the frequency of volunteering. Charitable donations to education and needy organizations are most strongly affected. Conversely, we find no such effects for white households. The results are robust to placebo and validity tests. Our estimates suggest that to offset the impact on charitable giving from increased police militarization, a black household would need to see income rise by nearly 50% on average.