GLENDALE : Police Turn Old Shell Casings Into Hard Cash

Glendale police are cashing in on brass.

So far this year, police have sold more than two tons of empty brass shell casings to an Idaho-based company that reloads them with gunpowder or melts and recycles them, range master Homer Carder said.

The company has paid the city more than $2,100 for the brass, recovered from the police shooting range over the past six years, Carder said.

Police have been able to spend $1,400 of that money to help pay to equip each officer with pepper spray. The rest of the money has yet to be earmarked, Lt. Don Shade said.

Carder came up with the recycling idea earlier this year as a way to get rid of piles of shells that were stacking up in barrels stored inside the police station and around the firing range, located in the hills above Fern Lane.

“We shoot here probably around 75,000 rounds a year,” Carder said. “That’s about 750 pounds.”

In addition to Glendale police, four other state and county law enforcement agencies use the range year-round.

Although the idea is new to Glendale, officials at larger agencies such as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department say they have been recycling bullet casings for years.

As for smaller agencies in the San Fernando Valley, San Fernando Police Sgt. Ken Belden says he swaps the brass with other companies in exchange for various shooting range equipment. Burbank police range master Larry Nichols says his department still reloads empty bullet shells.