Miami

War Zone

Miami commission approves police department’s purchase of assault rifles

By Angie Hargot

The Miami City Commission approved the police department’s purchase of an estimated 13 new tactical weapons and assault rifles to replace two-decades-old guns used by the department and its SWAT team. 

Under the one-year contract approved June 26, SRT Supply Inc. will provide the department with 10 Rock River AR15 military-grade assault rifles and three AE Sniper Rifles on an as-needed basis for an estimated $35,200 per year, with an option to renew for an additional year. The funds will be deducted from the Police Department general fund.

AR15 is a generic term for the civilian version of an M16 military-issue infantry rifle. The AR15s will cost the city roughly $2,000 each; the sniper rifles, more than $5,000 apiece. The contract also includes magazines, night sights, long-range scopes and other accessories for weapons that city documents say “are necessary to replace the used Vietnam-era weapons obtained nearly 10 years ago from the Department of Defense.”

“As [Police] Chief [John] Timoney will tell you, they are replacing existing rifles for the SWAT team,” Miami Procurement Department Purchasing Director Glenn Marcos told the commission Thursday.

Although Commissioner Angel González clarified that the weapons were not for regular police officers, he pushed the need for more officers to be trained and outfitted with rifles.

“I’m concerned about our officers facing these elements on the streets using AK47s, machine guns and all kinds of automatic weapons, and we have our officers exposed just working with handguns,” González said.

González expressed concern for the safety of Miami officers and recalled a time “years ago” when officers were outfitted with “rifles” visibly bracketed in their cars.

“That is a deterrent,” he said. “Any of these elements that see that our officers have a rifle in their car, [and the weapon is] exposed where they can see it, will think twice in many cases, before using their weapon,” González said.

The commissioner also expressed concern that many Miami Police Department officers use their own weapons while on the job.

Timoney announced in early September that he was reluctantly changing department policy to allow Miami patrol officers to carry assault rifles to combat the increasing number of criminals using similar weapons. Just days later, a Miami-Dade police officer was killed in the line of duty in a shootout with a man wielding an assault rifle.

Officers would have to complete two days of training, he said, and use special ammunition that shatters after impact to cut down on ricocheting bullets. Since the department didn’t then have the money to buy the assault rifles, officers who wanted to begin using them immediately could pay for them themselves.

However, Gonzalez pointed out a problem with that scenario: “It is my understanding that when an officer [fires] their own rifle, their rifle is taken into evidence of the case, and sometimes it takes up to six years to get their rifle back,” he said last week. “Is there any way that the process can be expedited so they can get their rifle back?”

González advocated “changing the system” so that the city would buy the officers’ rifles; then if a weapon needs to be taken into evidence, the officer wouldn’t be left without his or her rifle, which could cost up to $2,000.

“Things are not getting better,” González said. “Things are getting worse with violent crimes — it’s outrageous. [There were] two shootings in Allapattah very recently. People are being held up at gunpoint, and our officers are limited in their capacity even to defend themselves.”

City Manager Pete Hernandez vowed to work with Timoney “to ensure that when the rifle is taken away … that we’re able to provide a replacement…. There’s got to be a way,” Hernandez said.

González added that he agreed with the three-day training period Miami officers must complete before being qualified to carry a rifle. “We need to get as many of our officers as possible trained so that they can be qualified with a rifle,” he said.

“The process is well under way,” Timoney replied. “But the glitch, if you will, is kind of a nationwide glitch. There’s a shortage of ammunition. Not for day-to-day use, because you don’t need that much, but for training purposes. So every police department is facing the same thing: For rifle ammunition, there’s a huge shortage as a result of the war in Iraq.”

Timoney said the need was imperative “because you expend a lot of ammunition at the range.”

“I think we’re on the way now, but every police department in America” is going through the same problem, he said, adding that he agrees with González’s desire to see more cops properly outfitted with rifles.

“If, for example, a police officer uses his regular revolver,” Timoney said, and there was a shooting where the weapon had to be “taken for evidentiary purposes, he or she would be furnished with a replacement gun. So your point is well-taken.”

Recent years have seen spikes in the city’s murder rate, often with more than a dozen murders per year involving assault weapons in the hands of criminals.

Commissioners unanimously approved the contract.

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com