JUL/AUG/SEP - Long Beach Police Officers Association

Some things never change. We
still receive all of the training rifles
from property. We do, however,
purchase parts for the rifles.
If you have been to the
course, you know they break on
occasion. This is a result of
450+ students using the rifles
from property for over 12 years.
When rifles receive that much
service, things will break and
need replacement. Recently, we
acquired 200 rifles from the
military Defense Reutilization
Marketing Office (DRMO) program.
The rifles are in great condition,
but are M16A1’s, which
will require some modification
before they can be deployed. A
good chunk of them will be used
as a parts source for the training
rifles. If funds become available,
somewhere down the line, the
DRMO rifles could easily be
deployed after the modifications
necessary are performed.
In the beginning, we were given
only two days for the course, and
it was only for sergeants and
lieutenants. Each student was
given a whopping 200 rounds to
become competent enough to
stop a compelling situation in the
field. Most students had never
shot the rifle, so we had to start
from zero and get everyone up
to speed in two days! Scary!
We did initially buy 12 rifles for
training and deployment, and we
used iron sights and a 2-point
parade slings. We also used our
range, which limited our maximum
distance to 50 yards. At
the time, we didn’t even
have .223-caliber ammunition on
the department’s ammunition
contract. I can remember several
times when Sergeant Rob Sergi
went to Turner’s Sporting Goods
store to buy ammunition with his
own money in order to keep the
program going.
All of the field guns were new
rifles purchased for deployment,
and they were only
equipped with iron sights.
Early on, the patrol rifle was
deployed minimally. Mostly, I
believe, due to the fact that an
Unusual Occurrence report was
required after every deployment,
and some sergeants had
a severe reaction to either paper
products or ink. The rifle
was not being utilized as much
as should have been. It was
more like “In case of Armageddon,
break glass” type of
usage. The deployment criterion
has become less stringent,
and now deployments are commonplace.
The rifle was first deployed and
discharged during an incident
involving a barricaded suspect
on a bus. As a result of this
incident optics were added to
the rifle. The AR-15 cadre continued
to recommend changes,
especially the length of training,
equipment modifications,
and moving to a larger range.
We also recommended taking
the rifle out of the hands of supervisors
and giving the rifle to
officers. Another recommendation
was to give officer’s authority
to purchase their own
weapons in order to attain
more coverage in the field and
avoid problems with community
weapons.
The other major event, and the
catalyst for taking the rifle out
of sergeant’s hands, was a
take-over multi-suspect robbery
of the pawnshop at 10 th Street
and Long Beach Boulevard. The
incident had two scenes with
barricaded suspects, and a
large number of sergeants deployed
their rifles. No one was
left to run either crime scene.
As is usual in police work,
change comes after it is obvious
to everyone that something is
broken. Officers were finally
trained to deploy the rifle. A few
years later, officers were allowed
to purchase their own rifles. All
along, we continued to obtain
rifles from property, purchase
rifles for the field, add optics
with flat top uppers, add threepoint
slings, and move to two
different ranges. We eventually
found a home at Burro Canyon
Shooting Park where we currently
conduct the Patrol Rifle Course.
The course continues to evolve
and each course is slightly different
from the last. We strive to
constantly improve it and maximize
our time on the range with
the students.
(NOTE: Part 2 in the next Rap
Sheep will discuss the specific
parts of the rifle and how they
have evolved over the last several
years.)
999
A.A.
A MEETING OPEN TO
LAW ENFORCEMENT
AND FIRE FIGHTER
PERSONNEL ONLY
(ACTIVE OR RETIRED)
MONDAY NIGHTS AT 7:00 PM
CALL FOR LOCATION
CHUCK K. (310) 514-2974
DR. KLEIN (562) 426-1201
MEETINGS ARE HELD IN THE
E. LONG BEACH AREA
RAP SHEET 15