Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network

Massachusetts Police News, Information and Discussions on MassCops

Posted by: kwflatbed

RUTH FINCH
Chattanooga Times Free Press


The Glock 22s that Whitfield County sheriff's deputies will start carrying in the next few weeks are the first they've ever been issued.
Up until recently, the patrol officers furnished their own weapons, sometimes at a cost of $1,000 or more, officials said.
Across the state, the practice is not uncommon, said Terry Norris, president of the Georgia Sheriffs' Association. But he believes it is unconscionable.
"It challenges logic to require these people to purchase their own weapons when they are underpaid to start with," Mr. Norris said.
Elsewhere in the Northwest Georgia region, relying on officers to provide their own equipment has fallen out of favor because the liability issues are too great.
"If there is a shooting situation, the department has to prove that they have adequately trained that person on that weapon," said Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers. "If all officers carry the same sidearm and have all the same rifles and shotguns, it makes it a lot easier to train."
Catoosa County, like most counties in the area, allows officers to carry approved personal weapons as back-up, but the sheriff's office doesn't depend on officers to equip themselves.
"They provide their own socks and undergarments, but other than that we provide," Sheriff Summers said.
That's only been for the past two decades or so, though.
Up until the 1980s, it was common practice for sheriff's offices to require their deputies to buy guns as a condition of their employment. Sometimes, they also had to buy their own holsters, utility belts, handcuffs and other equipment.
Whitfield County gradually began providing other equipment to officers, but guns were overlooked.
"It was just a traditional thing that never had been addressed by the administration," said Maj. John Gibson of the Whitfield Sheriff's Department.
Last year, his office's narcotics division was involved in the seizure of nearly a half-million dollars in a joint operation with the Murfreesboro Police Department in Tennessee.
The money from the drug bust was split between the two agencies, and federal law requires seized money to be spent on equipment or training for officers.
About $80,000 of Whitfield County's share went toward the purchase of 130 .40-caliber Glock 22s and holsters, Maj. Gibson said.
The rest was spent on surveillance equipment, cars for undercover officers, and other equipment.
Seized drug money is frequently used to fight drugs and crime.
Just this week, a special drug fund was used to put a Mossburg, 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun into each of the Fort Oglethorpe Police Department's police cruisers.
City Council members approved the request from Police Chief Larry Black.
"There are 26 police vehicles, and I want one in each unit," Chief Black said. "We have only six at the present time."
Councilman Harold Silcox, who is a Marine Corps veteran of service in Vietnam, said he was pleased the special drug account funds were available to make the purchases.
"The shotgun was my weapon of choice in Vietnam for 15 months," he said.
Mr. Black said he got a low bid of $306 per weapon from Smyrna Police Distributors, and the purchase of the shotguns, trunk mounts, ammunition, handgun ammunition for practice and qualifying and replacement ammunition totaled $11,667.
Whitfield Maj. Gibson said the seized funds are a good way to meet expensive needs.
And paying for the weapons that way was a lot easier than trying to justify the expense to the Whitfield County Commission, which allots most of the Sheriff's Department budget, Maj. Gibson said.
Lt. Emmit Tate, a 21-year veteran at the Whitfield Sheriff's Office, said he never minded the expense of providing his own weapon.
"You don't want to buy a cheap one because when you need it, it may fire and it may not," he said. "And if it's my life on the line, I want a quality weapon."

Staff writer Ronnie Moore contributed to this report.
E-mail Ruth Finch at

Copyright 2005 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy

---

vBulletin Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.
vB Easy Archive Final ©2000 - 2008 - Created by Stefan "Xenon" Kaeser