Ferguson Use: Looking like the military. Because police are not expected to come under hostile fire from an enemy force at any moment, there's very little need for them to dress like their surroundings. According to both journalist Radley Balko and a report on police militarization by the ACLU, the major effect of military uniforms is an ego boost for the cops wearing them. Balko quotes a letter to the editors at Washington Post from retired police sergeant Bill Donelly: "One tends to throw caution to the wind when wearing 'commando-chic' regalia, a bulletproof vest with the word 'POLICE' emblazoned on both sides, and when one is armed with high tech weaponry."