Police To Get Semi-Automatic Rifles
By Veronique Masterson
El Paso,Texas -The El Paso Police Department is getting more fire power, in the form of semi-automatic weapons.
The department wants to make sure their officers and the community stay safe.
With the violence in our sister city, Chief Greg Allen saidpolice need to be prepared.
“This is an opportunity to prepare us for the possibility of any spillover,” Allen said.
Chief Allen said so far there have been around 100 murders in Juarez this year.
Luckily, the blood shed has not crossed the border, but the chief said he’d rather be prepared than wait until it’stoo late.
“We’re doing well only to a large degree because the cartels haven’t seen the need to do anything here,” he explains.
Right now, officers are equipped with pistols and shotguns. Now, each officer will be assigned an M-4 semi-automatic rifle.
It’ll cost a little more than $770,000 to buy the weapons. The money will come from a grant specifically for equipment to enhance officer safety.
Chief Allen said every officer will receive a weapon and get extensive training on how to use it. Still, some El Pasoans ABC-7 spoke with said they wouldn’t feel safer.
The chief explained to City Council, who approved the purchase of the weapons, that the M-4s would only be used in extreme situations such as a bank robbery or school lockdown where suspects have weapons.
“They’ll only be used in those rare instances, hopefully, where the weapon might be needed. It’s not going to be something that they’ll be walking down the streets with, causing alarm,” said Allen.
Although City Council representatives didn’t discuss this at today’s meeting, but in this weekend’s El Paso Inc., representatives mentioned their concern about errant soldiers and even the possible impact of military gangs.
