It was cops and robbers gone horribly awry.
On a winter morning 18 years ago in Los Angeles, two masked murder suspects walked out of a Bank of America with a bag full of cash.
They were armed to the teeth, with semi- and fully automatic rifles. Responding police, carrying pistols and shotguns, were outgunned.
It was about 20 minutes before a SWAT team got to the scene. Before the battle ended in the gunmen’s deaths, 11 officers and seven bystanders were shot and wounded.
More than 1,100 rounds were fired in the shootout. Police only fired about 600.
That day marked the beginning of a shift in how police departments across the United States would arm their patrol officers. Even in a slow, Southern city like Savannah — a world smaller than L.A. — semiautomatic rifles are being used in street crimes.
In 2012, two people — according to police, the wrong targets — were shot to death by a person wielding an AK-47 assault rifle as they drove down West Henry Street.
Before and since, local police have recovered many semiautomatic rifles used in crimes.
Now, Coastal Georgia’s largest police force is looking to follow the national trend, with plans to allow everyday patrol officers to carry assault rifles of their own.
Eyeing more firepower
Savannah-Chatham Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin says he plans to approve a policy that would outfit at least some of his allotted 300 patrol officers with semiautomatic rifles.
“It’s just a matter of me signing it,” Lumpkin recently told the Savannah Morning News. “We’re going to have patrol rifles.”
Initially, Lumpkin said, he’s leaning toward instituting a policy similar to one used by his old Athens-Clarke County Police Department, where officers are allowed to buy their own patrol rifles. He said that’s the best way to implement a policy here to see how it works, and it avoids forcing officers who don’t want to carry assault weapons to have them.
In general, the idea is that patrol officers will be better equipped in the time between initial response and a SWAT team’s arrival, allowing them to keep their distance and increase their firepower. They’re especially beneficial, Lumpkin said, when the person an officer is trying to apprehend is armed with a rifle or shotgun.
“Any shoulder weapon that’s being used against the officer presents a significant risk if the officer only has a handgun,” Lumpkin said.
Police officers with patrol rifles have to become certified in use of the weapons and demonstrate proficiency by qualifying each year.
If Lumpkin goes the way his old department did, officers who own certain approved models of assault rifles would have to first have them inspected.
“We’re not going to allow them to carry any type of ammunition they might desire,” Lumpkin said. “And we’re going to inspect the weapon to ensure the weapon is safe and functional... They have to demonstrate their proficiency in not only shooting, but actually handling the weapon.”
Culture of violence
Savannah-Chatham police seized 382 guns over the last seven months. In that same period — the beginning of April through the end of October — 205 guns were reported stolen from cars and residences in Savannah and unincorporated Chatham County. Several were assault weapons.
Many police departments — including several local ones — already have semiautomatic rifles available for officers. They have immediate access to the weapons, meaning they don’t need to retrieve them from a central location before responding to a call.
“They need to be accessible,” said Justin Gregory, the training director for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department. “It doesn’t do any good for something to be going down and officers needing to go back to an armory.”
Garden City police have a mix of semi- and fully automatic weapons.
“We’re living in an überviolent culture,” said Garden City Police Capt. D.G. Chapman Jr. “We have to make sure we have the equipment and the firepower to adequately respond.”
Even officers in one of the county’s smallest municipalities, Bloomingdale, have had semiautomatic patrol rifles for about two years. Thunderbolt Police Chief Bob Merriman said he’s looking at the option, too, because his officers have been finding “too many” assault weapons on the streets, including a TEC-9 semiautomatic pistol with two high-capacity magazines.
Neither Pooler nor Tybee Island police currently utilize patrol rifles.
Port Wentworth Police Chief Matt Libby said his officers have them.
“There’s a time and need for everything,” Libby said. “When you’re dealing with — especially — an active shooter, a lot of times historically law enforcement has been outgunned. We’re trying to level the playing field and give our officers the ability and the tools and training to survive and effectively eliminate a threat.”
When they’re used
Lumpkin’s been chief here one year as of this month. In that time, shots have been fired at four of his officers. In June, police said, 19-year-old Corey Baker elbowed an officer in the face at a traffic stop, then shot at him and a second officer as he ran away. Then, last month, two officers were shot by 25-year-old Tyrie Cuyler at a traffic stop. They returned fire, killing Cuyler, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is reviewing the case. The officers would not have been armed with patrol rifles in either case, even if they had them, Lumpkin said.
“In a lot of instances, issues occur so quickly that the individual officer does not have an opportunity to arm him or herself with a shoulder weapon,” he said.
When, however, they hunted for Baker, some SWAT officers looking for him were armed with tactical rifles.
Speaking hypothetically, Lumpkin said a situation such as a car chase and shootout on Interstate 16 two years ago in which murder suspect Anthony Parrish Jr. exchanged fire with police would have warranted officers being armed with patrol rifles instead of pistols.
Lumpkin said it’s essentially an idea of deterrence.
“Ideally, from a police perspective, to prevent violence we would have numerical superiority to the offenders and firearm superiority,” he said. “... If we can marshal a staffing superiority and a firearm superiority, the risk for everyone is decreased, given that the (offender) is going to have some rationality to them.”
Preparing for worst-case scenarios
It’s not just violent street criminals with high-powered arsenals who have police worried. They’re concerned about the potential for a mass shooting such as in a school, a theater or similar location.
Fortunately, no “active shooter” situation has occurred here, but police say having ready access to assault weapons will increase their chances of being faster at stopping such an attack.
“It’s another tool for officers,” Libby said. “We pray to God we never use them, but in the event of a situation, they have that option available to them. We pray every day like everybody that we don’t have another Sandy Hook or a Columbine. You don’t want that to occur, but you must plan for it, prepare for it and practice. You’ve got to be prepared.”
Mark Gerbino, the campus police chief at Savannah Technical College, said the need to meet a higher level of threat is “ever present” in today’s world. His officers, too, have the weapons.
“If you had an active shooter situation, you would benefit from addressing that threat from a distance and from a level of firepower that meets the need,” Gerbino said.
Critics of the patrol rifle trend call into question the militarization of police. St. Louis-area officers in Ferguson, Mo., for example, were heavily criticized last year when they faced down protesters while armed with assault weaponry.
Lumpkin said such weapons would not be brought out in any similar situation here. The average encounter with a police officer, he said, would not result in a resident seeing an assault weapon.
“We do not want to be perceived as militarizing the police, and we’re not,” Lumpkin said. “... Our people are not going to be riding their Segways with rifles strapped to their backs, but (they) will have the capacity to protect themselves and the citizens. The police must be safe if we’re going to maintain the safety of the citizens.”