Beverly Hills : Police to Get New Firepower
The purchase of 50 Benelli semiautomatic shotguns has been authorized by the City Council for the city’s 128-member Police Department.
The department will buy the weapons from the lowest bidder, a Huntington Beach company, at a cost of about $27,000.
Shotguns, which spray pellets instead of firing a single bullet, are used extensively in training, and are also useful in situations where a projectile with less penetrating power than a conventional bullet is desirable, said Lt. Joe Lombardi. If there is a standoff with a suspect in an alley with a block wall, for example, a shotgun will stop the suspect but won’t penetrate the wall, he said.
The new shotguns will replace aging pump shotguns, for which it is difficult to get replacement parts, Lombardi said.
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