Los Gatos Weekly-Times

LGPD seeks council approval for purchase of new firearms

By Shari Kaplan

The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department plans to purchase a variety of new firearms, pending Town Council approval at a March 16 meeting. A four-member advisory committee that has been working with the department will present its recommendations to the council.

In November, according to Police Chief Larry Todd, the department was notified that its application for a Local Law Enforcement Block Grant had been approved. Since then, the department has organized its committee to study data on the various types of firearms available and to advise the department as to how it could spend the grant.

The committee is made up of Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Mike Adams, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Edgar Taylor, Los Gatos High School assistant principal Craig Heimbichner--whose responsibilities include discipline--and Community Against Substance Abuse (CASA) chairwoman Kathie Friedland.

The $18,084 grant will be supplemented by the $5,000 already in the department's current budget, along with a little more than $2,000 in matching funds from the town and money from drug asset seizures.

According to Todd, officers currently use 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistols, many of which are 12 to 15 years old. Their age, plus wear and tear from regular test and practice shooting sessions, has led to occasional malfunctions and cracked or broken parts, according to Todd.

Their replacements will be 40-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistols, which Todd says possess newer technology and are already in use--with favorable comments--by the California Highway Patrol, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and the Scotts Valley Police Department.

"The [new] guns have a lower-velocity bullet, but it's a bigger bullet, so it has greater impact energy [and] greater probability of disabling an individual," Todd explains.

"You try to find a balance in a weapon that will have the knockdown [power] you need, yet there's less chance that bullets will go through other objects that could jeopardize the citizenry."

Two additional semiautomatic rifles are planned for use in sergeants' cars. The department's Special Weapons and Tactics team also stands to benefit.

"We'll be upgrading and standardizing our SWAT weapons," Todd says, referring to the team's current firearms, which either have been passed along from other police departments or were obtained through weapons seizures.

Among the new firearms in the works for SWAT team members are a Colt semiautomatic carbine rifle, an H&K 40-caliber semiautomatic rifle and two specially designed 12-gauge shotguns.

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