Antidemocratic Policing in America: The Institutionalization of Historical Trauma

Around the world, countries have begun reforms to align their police forces with a democratic policing culture. Despite significant progress in interpreting the United States Constitution, the United States has failed to fulfill one of the key aspects of democratic governance: democratic policing. Consequently, the gap between law and departmental policy, and policing culture continues to widen. This study aims to contribute to Forde’s theory by applying its antidemocratic framework at the institutional level to describe policing practices that have received widespread attention from the media and scholars alike, and which continue to widen the divide between the police and the public by exploring police misconduct through a power lens of regressive antidemocratic strategies. Antidemocratic tactics and strategies must be recognized for creating effective democratic policing frameworks for positive and sustainable social change. The sample includes extant literature and data from exonerees. The generic qualitative inquiry was chosen to explore whether the antidemocratic framework has become institutionalized by answering the research question: How does Forde’s antidemocratic framework, rooted in historical trauma and political demoralization, manifest in contemporary police-civilian interactions? Forde’s antidemocratic concepts— nativism, social distinctions, misinformation, fear, dehumanization, and subjugation—frame this study. The framework underpins the understanding of antidemocratic policing and how micro-level disempowerment and macro-historical trauma (colonialism) converge in modern institutions. The primary finding is that antidemocratic practices are institutionalized. Future studies on democratic policing could inform the field and policymakers on whether misconduct, particularly excessive use of force, is a symptom of police demoralization, and the types of antidemocratic disempowerment tactics are being leveraged against innocent civilians by other criminal justice practitioners.