Police Chiefs Fear They’re Outgunned : Weapons Among the Concerns of Those at Annual Conference

About 200 California police chiefs have descended on Costa Mesa for their annual conference, and according to their president, their big worry is that they are falling behind in the arms race.

Military assault rifles, like the Chinese-made AK-47 semiautomatic used by a gunman to kill five schoolchildren in Stockton last month, are pouring into the country and into the hands of gang members and drug dealers,” said Craig L. Meacham, police chief of West Covina and president of the California Police Chiefs Assn.

More Firepower Than Police

“They have just outstripped our capability to cope with them,” said Meacham. “They have more firepower than the police officers do, and it’s intolerable for us to live with.”

Meacham said in an interview Tuesday that police chiefs don’t want to counter with equally powerful weapons. “If we were to outfit our officers with AK-47s, there would be a hue and cry about us carrying these terrible weapons.”

What the police chiefs want is a ban on the sale, possession and use of such weapons, Meacham said. That’s gun control, an always controversial issue and something police have in the past been reluctant to endorse.

“Philosophically, law enforcement people have not been opposed to the (public’s) possession of weapons. What we have seen, however, is that with opening of relations with Communist China, in 1986 we imported 8,000 (Chinese-made) AK-47s into this country. Last year, we imported 80,000.

“These weapons are weapons of war,” Meacham said.

Ban Sought

State Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp is backing bills in Sacramento to ban such weapons, and he will open the police chiefs conference today with a speech to rally the chiefs’ support.

“He will tell them about the legislation, how he intends to get it passed and how he wants them to help,” said Duane Peterson, Van de Kamp’s press secretary. “He’ll be telling them, ‘We’re taking on the NRA (National Rifle Assn.). This is the fight of our lives.’ ”

Meacham said he is confident the association will formally endorse a ban on assault rifles and will campaign for one.

“Essentially we’re going to have to get the word out to the public,” he said. “It’s the public that will get it passed. We sense the public has reached a saturation point about turning neighborhoods into battlegrounds. If they’re as incensed and as frightened as we feel they are,” the legislation will be enacted, Meacham said.

Van de Kamp will speak at 10 a.m. in the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel, where the conference runs through Saturday morning. The first of the association’s 410 members arrived Monday.

About half of the membership is expected to attend this annual conference, first held 11 years ago in the same hotel.

The agenda includes more than assault rifles.

Terrorism Task Force

FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Los Angeles will describe foreign and domestic terrorists and FBI tactics against them during a closed-door session.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Lee McGown will talk on the corruption that drugs may cause within California law enforcement agencies. William F. Tafoya, the FBI’s staff futurist at its national academy in Virginia, will speak on “The Future of Law Enforcement.”

Panels will discuss new tactics against gangs and how police chiefs can survive local political turmoil. And Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) will deliver a luncheon speech on “The Heroic Role in Law Enforcement.”