Perspectives
Militarization has fostered a policing culture that sets up protesters as ‘the enemy’
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The militarization of local police departments has been associated with an increase in police violence against citizens.
Tom Nolan
Tom Nolan was a city of Boston, Massachusetts police officer for 27 years. During Tom's career at the BPD, he worked uniformed patrol for 10 years, including a stint in the department's elite Mobile Operations Patrol (motorcycle/SWAT) unit. In 1988 Tom was promoted to sergeant, sergeant-detective in 1990, and lieutenant in 1995. As a sergeant and sergeant-detective, Nolan worked in the Anti-Gang Violence Unit (now Youth Violence Strike Force) and the Anti-Corruption Division of the Bureau of Internal Investigations-he spent his last 10 years as a uniformed lieutenant and shift commander in the patrol division. Nolan accepted an appointment as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) in Washington, DC in May 2011 and remained with DHS through May of 2012, traveling throughout the United States providing training and consulting on civil rights and civil liberties issues for state and major urban area fusion centers. DHS sought Tom's expertise in the area of federal law enforcement use of force policies, sexual assault reporting procedures in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, domestic extremist groups, as well as compliance with provisions of the Constitution pertaining to civil rights and civil liberties issues in the intelligence-driven collection and retention of information on individuals and groups. Tom has been an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice at Boston University, the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and Merrimack College. He has also taught at Tufts University and the Urban College of Boston. Tom is currently a Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology at Emmanuel College in Boston.