July 16--A new gun order placed by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's office will provide lots of bang for $75,000.
To be precise, the purchase from an Indiana gun supplier will provide the department with 565 new Glock handguns -- enough to outfit each of the department's 275 deputies with two of the popular guns and still have some left over.
Sheriff's Inspector Richard Schmidt said the idea wasn't to buy two pistols per deputy, but to get enough of the Glocks to equip deputies, the department's command staff, a growing number of firearm-equipped jail guards and have enough left over for a cache of 50 or so weapons that can be used if someone's regular weapon is on the fritz.
"The number (of guns purchased) may seem a little weird," but makes sense given the overall needs of the department, Schmidt said. The deal the department got on the weapons was also terrific, he said.
The price for each new Glock was $429, but only $139 with trade in of the department's similar model Glocks from 10 years ago, according to the department. The guns were ordered from Kiesler Police Supply and Ammunition Co., of Jeffersonville, Ind.
Critics said the gun buy seemed excessive.
"Unless there was a two-for-one sale, there was absolutely no reason to justify this," said county Supervisor John Weishan Jr.
It also struck Weishan as odd that the department would replace all its service weapons at once rather than staggering the buys. Deputies very seldom have occasion to fire their guns, he said.
"Let's be honest. We're not fighting a war here," Weishan said. "A deputy is just going to fire his weapon on the (shooting) range. The most wear and tear on a weapon is just cleaning it."
Weishan described the Glocks the department is retiring as a quality weapon "that could easily last for decades . . . It's basically the same weapon."
Supervisor Mark Borkowski said he couldn't criticize Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on the gun purchase.
"Who am I to say what the proper number is?" said Borkowski, chairman of the County Board panel that reviews legal and law enforcement issues. "It's his shop . . . he gets to call the shots."
Schmidt said considering the $169 cost each of upgrading the existing department handguns, it made sense to buy new. Recoil spring mechanisms in the handguns typically need replacing and the sights -- aiming guides on the gun barrel -- should be upgraded after a decade, Schmidt said.
The new guns will be outfitted with glow-in-the-dark sights that help aim a weapon at night. They run about $150.
The large gun purchase for the department likely is aimed at transferring more duties traditionally performed by deputies to lower-paid and lesser-trained correctional officers, said Roy Felber, president of the Milwaukee County Deputy Sheriffs Association. Schmidt said the department planned to train "at least 50" correctional officers to qualify them for carrying a handgun.
The correctional officers -- jail guards -- now fully staff both the county jail and the County Correctional Facility-South in Franklin. Over the past decade under Clarke, deputies have been phased out of monitoring inmates. Clarke has argued that some of the duties of deputies can be done equally well by correctional officers at lower cost to taxpayers.
Under that policy, the number of deputies has declined from 800 to about 320. Clarke's 2012 budget took a deep cut, forcing layoffs of 48 more deputies, bringing the total to about 275.
Felber said he'd prefer the department save the money for the new guns and use it to reinstate laid-off deputies.
"I've had my same weapon since 1997," Felber said. When told of the department's plan to exchange current weapons, he said: "Why do you need to trade them in when there's nothing wrong with the (old) Glocks?"
Felber said he suspected Clarke planned to shift the duty of escorting inmates to court dates to correctional officers, a further erosion of the scope of deputies' defined tasks.
Clarke declined a request for comment.
The $75,000 price for the 565 guns was about $20,000 lower than originally expected, Schmidt said. The money for the gun purchase was authorized in 2011.
The new guns are to be delivered to the Sheriff's Department by the vendor over a 10-week period starting in August.
Copyright 2012 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
