Chapel Hill Police Buy 40 Rifles To Equip Patrol Cars

In a recent memo to the Town Council, Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue says the police department purchased 40 rifles to meet a long-standing goal to have a rifle available in every patrol vehicle.

The purchase was made using federal drug seizure funds and will not come out of the department’s operating budget.

Chapel Hill police officers are already armed with handguns, but Blue notes there may be times when those are not sufficient. He writes:

“We learned during the Wendell Williamson shooting that handguns are largely ineffective when an assailant is equipped with a rifle, as the range and accuracy of a handgun is significantly inferior to that of a rifle. The potential for such an event to happen again in our community is real.”

Blue says all officers must successful qualify with the rifle before being allowed to carry one.

There are only a handful of situations in which officers are authorized to use rifles.

These include when someone has been taken hostage or a suspect is barricaded, when officers have reason to believe a suspect who poses an immediate threat is wearing body armor, or when officers face a “threat of deadly force” from someone with a weapon.

The department’s use of force policy mandates that any incident of pointing or discharging a weapon be reported to the Chief of Police and investigated. The town’s Community Policing Advisory Committee will review the department’s policies regarding rifles in the near future.

Here’s the full email from Chief Blue:

This message is to provide information to our Council about our recent acquisition of 40 patrol rifles. 

As you know, we have had a handful of rifles in our inventory for some time. Their use and deployment are strictly regulated by policy. We have had a long-standing goal to have a rifle available in each patrol vehicle so each of our officers on patrol would have immediate access to one, if needed. However, we have not had enough rifles in inventory to achieve this goal, which means that an officer could respond to a situation where a rifle is necessary to save lives but not have one available to him/her. Through the use of federal drug seizure funds, we have recently acquired enough rifles to have one available in every patrol car so all patrol officers will have access to one. This acquisition has no impact on our operating budget.

We require that all patrol officers successfully qualify with the rifle prior to carrying one. All of our existing policies that regulate rifle deployment, qualification, and documenting use of force will apply. Consistent with their charge, I will engage our Community Policing Advisory Committee in a review of the applicable policies to ensure that we acknowledge and consider any community impacts.

Our current weapons policy allows rifles to be deployed if one or more of the following situations exist:
-The officer reasonably believes deployment is necessary to counter the imminent threat of deadly force by a person possessing a weapon
-A person has been taken hostage or someone is barricaded 

-The officer reasonably believes a suspect, who poses an imminent threat of harm, is wearing body armor
-Activation of the Special Emergency Response Team
-Other unique situations at the direction of a supervisor

Our use of force policy also requires that any pointing or discharge of a weapon, whether intentional or accidental, be reported immediately in writing to the Chief of Police through the officer’s direct supervisor and then is investigated pursuant to our normal policies and procedures.

Our officers must be prepared and equipped to respond to dangerous situations where they may be overwhelmed by the amount of force confronting them and where their body armor may be insufficient. We take this responsibility very seriously. We learned during the Wendell Williamson shooting that handguns are largely ineffective when an assailant is equipped with a rifle, as the range and accuracy of a handgun is significantly inferior to that of a rifle. The potential for such an event to happen again in our community is real. It is incumbent upon us to provide our officers with the training, equipment, and support to respond to such events with confidence and the tools they need to keep our community (and themselves) safe.

Please let me know if you require additional information.

Chris Blue
Chief of Police