Police Training Article

July 16, 2008

Ill. police trade in shotguns for assault rifles

By Carolyn Rusin
The Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Schaumburg police will equip squad cars with semiautomatic rifles, replacing the shotguns that had been issued to officers, officials said Tuesday.

Officials said the .223-caliber AR-15 rifles, which are more accurate and have a longer range, will give officers more ammunition than the 12-gauge pump-action shotguns that they will replace.

"This provides our officers with increased firearm power," said Sgt. John Nebl, a police spokesman. "[Rifles] are easily accurate for at least up to 100 yards."

Nebl said the shotguns hold four rounds and are accurate to about 50 yards.

The rifles, which hold 30 rounds, will be issued to officers in late summer or early fall, he said.

The department is buying 26 rifles as part of a trade-in program, through which a dealer will cover most of the $29,000 cost in exchange for Schaumburg's shotguns, ammunition and other weapons that are obsolete, police said.

The AR-15 is "a lot easier to handle," said Officer Paul Mydlach, the department's weapons range master. "Across the country everyone is going toward having higher powered weapons."

The department also announced Tuesday that it will destroy about 60 weapons, including handguns, rifles, shotguns, knives and bayonets that had been confiscated over the last two years or were turned in voluntarily to police.