Chicago won't let retired cops carry concealed guns
Frank Main and Fran Spielman, The Chicago Sun-Times
Copyright 2005 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Retired Chicago Police officers will be getting letters in the mail soon saying the city won't certify them to carry guns -- a move that angers the head of the local Fraternal Order of Police.
Congress passed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004 to allow retired and off-duty officers across the country to carry concealed weapons.
But the city is worried about the liability of allowing retired cops to carry guns when they haven't gone through refresher training or undergone mental and physical fitness evaluations. The city also is concerned about the lack of a national database of retired officers authorized to carry guns.
'A RESPONSIBILITY,' NOT A LUXURY
Sheri Mecklenburg, general counsel to police Supt. Phil Cline, said the federal law does not define how a department should determine an officer had retired "in good standing."
"We would want some federal legislation to protect us from liability and some national database of people authorized to carry a gun," she said.
Mecklenburg said she did not know how many of the city's 9,000 retired cops have asked to be certified to carry a gun.
The letter to retired Chicago cops says "until these areas of concern are addressed by federal legislation, the Department has declined to adopt new procedures for qualifying retired officers to carry a firearm."
"They have no right to do this," responded Mark Donahue, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.
Donahue said the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act was a priority of the national FOP.
"The ability to carry a firearm, as expressed by the city, is a luxury," he said. "From the perspective of law enforcement, it is a responsibility."
The Chicago FOP's Web site said its attorneys have advised against legal action so far. Instead, the lodge is "addressing the agencies responsible for ensuring the proper enabling procedures."
Under the city's interpretation of the federal law, the city can't bar out-of-town retired officers from carrying guns if they have been certified by agencies outside Chicago.
But the city believes the federal government can't force the city to certify retired officers here if it chooses not to.
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