This story was printed in partnership with The Hint, a nonprofit newsroom masking gun violence in America. Join its newsletters right here.
Shortly after darkish someday in September 2022, law enforcement officials Yang Lee and Charles Laskey-Citadel arrived on Milwaukee’s west facet to analyze a automotive deserted on the sidewalk. Lee knelt to look at the motive force’s facet floorboard as Laskey-Citadel stood behind him. Then Lee rose—and his holstered gun fired a bullet into his associate’s leg.
The taking pictures was captured on physique digicam footage, and it was a minimum of the third time in three years {that a} Milwaukee officer’s SIG Sauer P320 pistol had allegedly fired with out a set off pull, in accordance with lawsuits and police information. The next month, the Milwaukee Police Division moved to switch its P320s with weapons from one other producer.
“There isn’t a larger precedence than the security of the individuals who shield our metropolis,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson mentioned at an October 2022 information convention asserting the swap. “Unexplained discharges, they’ve injured folks. That’s utterly unacceptable to me.”
On the identical occasion, Milwaukee’s police chief revealed that, to offset the price of the brand new weapons, the division could be reselling its P320s to a gun vendor. Quickly, the outdated P320s—deemed too harmful for town’s officers—could be out there for buy by civilians.
The choice in Milwaukee follows a sample that has been repeated in cities throughout the nation as police departments reevaluate their use of the P320 amid mounting issues concerning the weapon’s security. A 2023 investigation by The Hint and the Washington Submit revealed that the P320 has gruesomely injured scores of people that alleged in lawsuits that it has a probably lethal defect. SIG Sauer denied these claims.
Over the previous two months, The Hint surveyed greater than 60 regulation enforcement businesses whose officers as soon as used the P320. Greater than 20 of these businesses—together with police departments in Oklahoma Metropolis, Denver, and Chicago—have moved to ban the gun due to fears about unintentional discharges. Twelve businesses mentioned they resold their P320s to the general public after figuring out the mannequin was unsafe for officers to make use of.
Cumulatively, these departments despatched a minimum of 4,000 P320s again into the business market.
“If the first operate of regulation enforcement is to guard and serve, one would suppose that returning a problematic weapon to the general public just isn’t significantly in line with that mission,” Jonathan Jacobs, director of the Institute for Legal Justice Ethics at New York’s John Jay School, informed The Hint. “The moral points listed below are very, very plain.”
A Milwaukee police spokesperson mentioned, “The trade-in was a cost-savings for the division.”
SIG Sauer declined to touch upon the specifics of this story and directed inquiries to p320truth.com, an internet site it created concerning the gun. The gunmaker beforehand has denied that the P320 is able to firing with out a set off pull and cited accounts of unintentional discharges with different firearms as proof that such points are neither unusual nor suggestive of a defect.
Considerations Develop After A number of Shootings, Lawsuits
Considerations concerning the P320 surfaced lately in Washington, the place in February, the state’s Legal Justice Coaching Fee banned the P320 from its services, citing an “abundance of allegations of un-commanded discharges occurring across the nation.” As a result of the fee hosts obligatory coaching for law enforcement officials, its determination pressured regulation enforcement businesses throughout the state to rethink their use of the P320.
The ban got here after a minimum of two shootings involving P320s amongst Washington regulation enforcement. Final 12 months, a Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy’s holstered P320 discharged whereas she apprehended a suspect in a grocery retailer, in accordance with physique digicam footage obtained by native media. No person was injured, however after the taking pictures, the Kitsap County Fee supplied to completely fund the acquisition of various weapons plus the price of destroying the outdated P320s to take away them from circulation.
The Sheriff’s Workplace declined the provide, and in March, it mentioned it might be reselling greater than 200 P320s to a vendor. “It appeared just like the fiscally accountable factor to do,” Kitsap County Undersheriff Russ Clithero informed The Hint. The workplace acquired roughly $300 per resold weapon—greater than $60,000.
Probably the most widespread handguns in America, the P320 has been utilized by officers at greater than a thousand regulation enforcement businesses throughout the nation. However in accordance with police information and lawsuits, as of April 23, a minimum of 120 folks have alleged that their P320 fired with out the set off being pulled. These shootings resulted in additional than 110 accidents and a minimum of one dying.
Dozens of individuals have sued SIG Sauer over P320 discharges. A number of circumstances have been dismissed, and the corporate gained a jury trial in 2022. Extra lately, nonetheless, two juries have dominated towards SIG Sauer, awarding greater than $13 million in damages. After the latest verdict, in November, the nationwide Fraternal Order of Police despatched a letter to SIG Sauer requesting an accounting of measures taken by the corporate to deal with widespread issues concerning the P320.
“The officers who depend on your merchandise should have absolute confidence within the security and efficiency of their weapon,” the letter learn.
The Hint contacted 69 regulation enforcement businesses for this story and 41 responded. A complete of 16 confirmed that after issuing the P320 to officers, they switched to a brand new pistol out of concern concerning the P320’s security. 4 others had acknowledged publicly that their departments switched pistols due to security causes however didn’t reply to The Hint.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Workplace in Florida resold greater than 800 P320s after three officers survived incidents by which they are saying their P320s discharged, although no one pulled the weapons’ triggers, information present.
“The trade-in worth was essential to facilitate the transition to the Glocks we at present use,” a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned. “We can’t communicate for what actions the seller took with the weapons after we traded them again.”
The Police Division in Bridge Metropolis, Texas, resold its P320s after considered one of its officers claimed she was shot within the groin by a holstered gun zipped inside her purse, a police report reveals. The bullet missed her backbone by inches.
R.D. Bergeron, the assistant police chief of Bridge Metropolis, mentioned the division stored the gun concerned within the taking pictures. “The very last thing we might need is anybody, officer or civilian, to get harm on account of it firing uncommanded,” Bergeron mentioned.
A Widespread Police Follow
Legislation enforcement businesses usually resell weapons for funds causes. Used police weapons are widespread amongst gun consumers as a result of they’re comparatively cheap and infrequently in good situation. Resales have drawn criticism from regulation enforcement specialists and gun violence researchers, who’ve argued that introducing used police weapons to the civilian market dangers fueling crime.
Not less than 52,000 police weapons had been concerned in crimes—together with homicides and different violent assaults—since 2006, in accordance with an investigation by The Hint, CBS Information, and Reveal from The Heart for Investigative Reporting. Whereas that tally contains weapons misplaced by or stolen from police, lots of the firearms have been resold by regulation enforcement.
Ed Obayashi, a deputy sheriff in Modoc County, California, and a nationwide police ethics skilled, mentioned reselling an allegedly faulty gun poses an added risk to public security, even when it by no means slips into legal fingers. Because of this alone, he mentioned, departments mustn’t resell P320s in the event that they imagine the weapons to be faulty. “There are conditions in regulation enforcement the place you’re going to must do the precise factor, even when it’s going to value you financially,” Obayashi mentioned.
In Laredo, Texas, the Police Division resold about 500 P320s after an officer skilled an unintentional discharge, officers mentioned. The officer was not injured, however investigators concluded that his gun had fired “with out the set off being pulled,” in accordance with a Bexar County Legal Investigations Laboratory report obtained by The Hint.
When requested why the company had resold its P320s after pulling them from service, a police spokesperson didn’t reply.
Along with the 12 businesses that resold P320s to sellers, two—the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) and the Honesdale Borough Police Division, additionally in Pennsylvania—returned their weapons to SIG Sauer, The Hint discovered.
SEPTA returned its P320s after an officer’s gun discharged in a Philadelphia subway station, narrowly lacking his leg. Andrew Busch, a SEPTA spokesperson, mentioned the company couldn’t place circumstances on what would possibly occur with the returned weapons. When requested whether or not it had thought-about holding onto the weapons, Busch mentioned, “We’re not going to touch upon inner deliberations or discussions with the producer.”
Lots of the largest police forces within the nation enable officers to purchase their very own weapons from an accepted record, reasonably than issuing a single mannequin to the entire division. 5 such businesses contacted for this story—the Chicago, Denver, and Dallas police departments, in addition to the Clark County and Pierce County sheriff’s places of work in Washington—mentioned that they had pulled the P320 from their accepted handgun lists or deliberate to bar officers from carrying the mannequin due to security issues.
“The SIG Sauer P320 was discovered to not meet the inner security requirements of the Denver Police Division,” a spokesperson for the company wrote in an emailed assertion.
Sixteen different businesses both remained assured within the P320’s reliability or mentioned that they had transitioned away from the gun for causes apart from security issues, prefer it not being suitable with their most popular equipment.
The Goshen, Indiana, police chief, José Miller, mentioned the P320 had confirmed dependable and “operationally sound” in over a decade of service. “Our analysis—bolstered by each our inner expertise and exterior analysis, together with findings from the Division of the Military—leaves little question,” Miller mentioned. “The SIG Sauer P320 is a protected, reliable firearm.”
Just one police division—in Orange, Connecticut—opted to not resell its P320s. As a substitute, the weapons are locked away at headquarters. “If we imagine a firearm could be faulty, we don’t agree with placing that weapon again on the road,” mentioned Max Martins, the division’s assistant chief. “What if we traded within the weapons, then a civilian purchased considered one of our outdated ones and there was an unintentional discharge? You don’t need that in your conscience.”
