Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
Police become paramilitary when they are more like military (in equipment, organization, and habit) than like civilians. That is certainly true in the US for special units like SWAT teams, but is not true for most police.
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ie every police department that actually functions.
Equipment: not actually required to be paramilitary but, they are uniformed, given commo and in most cases weapons, and i have yet to meet a cop that isn't wearing some armor.
Organization; they have a clearly defined chain of command with a specified line of succession so you don't interrupt the chiefs game of gulf unless you have to.
Habit: this is more difficult to point at but given that they are expected to be able to think on their feet in the field, they are expected to respect their superiors, they often even get the same haircuts(for many of the same reasons) and given that all of these habits stem from the same sources as their military mirrors. we can check this box as well.
so yes by your stated standards any Police department that can effectively function is a paramilitary force.