Sheriff’s Plan on New Guns for Deputies Draws Fire

Plans by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to buy 10,000 semiautomatic pistols came under fire Friday from the president of the department’s union, who said the sheriff wants to pay for the new guns by limiting briefings that deputies must attend before work.

The president of the Assn. of Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, Les Robbins, said that shortening or doing away with mandatory, preshift briefings--for which deputies receive 18 minutes of overtime pay each day--would undermine safety by sending deputies out on the street without them being made aware of the dangers awaiting them.

Moreover, Robbins and other union members suggested that the new guns, for which the Sheriff’s Department plans to spend $3.6 million over the next four years, have had scattered mechanical and ammunition troubles, posing other safety factors for deputies in the field.

Ironically, sheriff’s administrators said this week that they plan to buy the 9-millimeter pistols to improve deputy safety. The 16-shot semiautomatics, made by Beretta, will replace the six-shot revolvers that the is using.

Starting in September

The first semiautomatics, the same weapon already in use by the U.S. military, will be issued to deputies beginning in September.

Robbins said Friday that while the overwhelming majority of the union’s members favor a switch to semiautomatics because it means more firepower, few would likely endorse the plan if it meant a substantial change in preshift briefings.

“The deputies need to know if a (robbery) went down an hour ago, or somebody’s on a stakeout in our area, or we’re looking for a rape car,” Robbins said. “You need adequate time to discuss those sorts of things before you go out on the street, and you can’t really do that in less than 15 minutes.”

Robbins said department administrators earlier this year proposed cutting back or doing away with the briefings altogether as a way to fund the new guns.

The union, he said, expects to discuss the issue with sheriff’s administrators next week and intends to remind them of the safety, as well as economic implications, of such a plan. Doing away with daily briefings, Robbins said, would reduce the average deputy’s annual salary by about $1,200.

Block, however, said the Sheriff’s Department does not intend to eliminate briefings but is considering shortening them.

‘Wouldn’t Do It’

“If we look at it and there would be a problem with safety (by cutting back briefings), then we wouldn’t do it,” Block said. “It’s that simple.”

As for mechanical performance of the 9-millimeter Beretta, Block said careful study by his weapons experts found the pistol to be highly reliable.

“They were very impressed by this gun,” he said.

So is the U.S. military, which three years ago picked the same weapon to replace the .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol that U.S. soldiers have used for most of this century. Congress ordered 315,000 Berettas at a cost of $56.4 million.

Lt. Col. John Reitz, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said Friday that of a total of 104,000 pistols issued thus far to the military, only four have malfunctioned. In each case, he said, problems occurred because “non-standard” ammunition was used or because the guns had been worn down by having fired more than 5,000 bullets.

Marine Corps spokeswoman Lt. Laureen Pratt said the Marines are satisfied with the Beretta and have no intention of replacing it.