O.C. Deputies Get Assault Weapons

In a move prompted in part by the slow response of its SWAT team, the Sheriff’s Department has begun handing out assault weapons to field deputies so they can better deal with heavily armed suspects.

So far, 52 deputies have received the AR-15 assault weapons and carry them in the trunks of their patrol cruisers, Sheriff’s Department officials said. They are considering plans to eventually train and arm all 468 county patrol officers.

“If you’re a bad guy, you don’t have to get through [deputies] with a shotgun and a peashooter, you have to get through three guys with AR-15 assault weapons,” said Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo.

Officials acknowledged the weapon upgrade is to offset the slow response times of the department’s SWAT team. Currently, the team takes an average of two hours--sometimes longer--to reach emergency scenes, Jaramillo said.

By comparison, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team has an average response time of 30 minutes, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Michael Irving.

Police say that they are encountering more suspects with high-powered weapons, including the man accused of killing Deputy Brad Riches with an AK-47 in a Lake Forest ambush last May. The suspect sprayed a barrage of bullets into the deputy’s parked car before Riches could draw his weapon.

A year earlier, the gunman in a shooting rampage at the Orange Caltrans headquarters fired more than 300 rounds from an assault weapon, killing five workers and wounding a police officer who arrived armed with only a revolver and shotgun.

In 1997, Los Angeles Police Department officers watched in horror as rounds from their department issued handguns bounced harmlessly off body armor worn by two robbers armed with assault rifles during a shootout at the North Hollywood branch of Bank of America.

In the wake of that clash, several police departments, including the LAPD, upgraded their firearms.

“We’re now in an era when the criminal element is as sophisticated as the cops,” said Sgt. Wayne Quint, president of the Deputies Assn. of Orange County. “We need weapons that put us on a level playing field.”

Adding new high-powered weapons to police arsenals has come under fire from some civil libertarians on the grounds that they pose a deadly threat to innocent bystanders.

Besides, asked Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, “When crime is going down all over, why is everyone so anxious to do things that could lead to dangerous situations for innocent people?”

Some police agencies have reached a similar conclusion. In Garden Grove, for example, officers advised the department against buying the AR-15 rifle. Instead, they suggested buying shotgun shells with bullets designed to penetrate body armor.

“They felt that for patrol purposes it was safer and more reliable,” said Garden Grove police Capt. Dave Abrecht. “The concern with the AR-15 is the bullet going through three different walls and hitting someone.”

But most agencies agree that the more powerful weapons are necessary given the type of firepower available. The action by the Sheriff’s Department--Orange County’s largest police agency--might prompt other departments to follow.

In Santa Ana, 50 patrol officers carry AR-15s in the trunks of their cruisers. Every officer in the city’s police department is also trained to use a 12-gauge shotgun and a Ruger .40-caliber rifle, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul Luna.

Tustin spent $70,200 to equip every one of its Police Department’s 27 patrol cars with an AR-15 and to provide officers with special training.

At the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, officials are examining the price of allocating more assault weapons to deputies. Each weapon costs up to $1,000, and training can prove expensive, Jaramillo said.

But if the safety concerns outweigh the costs, then officials will recommend issuing assault weapons to more deputies.

For now, the deputies with the AR-15s will make up a team designed to quickly take control of standoffs involving high-powered assault weapons until the SWAT team arrives.

Officials are also studying ways to improve the SWAT team’s slow response times. One possibility is to allow SWAT deputies to travel directly to emergency scenes and have other employees retrieve their equipment from the department’s headquarters in Santa Ana.