Brookfield Police Department issues its officers Glock 9 mm handguns that are only six or seven years old, but are outdated in terms of how technology is advancing in arms. Police Chief Aaron Kasiewicz has proposed a plan to replace the department-issue guns so they will accommodate electronic sights, which was endorsed by the trustees March 3.
“A lot of the officers have been wanting to go to” electronic sights, Kasiewicz said. “We have officers that are certified instructors in it.”
The Glocks the department has “are not capable of accepting those types of sights and the officers are out spending $400 or $500 on their own for these type of sights asking to carry their own guns so they can carry them,” the chief said. “I don’t want them carrying their own gun. I want them carrying department issue.”
The Glocks currently used by the department have fixed sights through which the handler looks through and lines up dots emitted by the sight to see where the gun is aimed. There are several kinds of electronic sights, one of which Kasiewicz displayed; the handler looks through the site and a holographic circle shows where the gun is aimed.
“For a lot of people, this is way quicker, way more accurate and way more expensive,” Kasiewicz said.
The Glock model that Kasiewicz is eyeing typically would cost $550 each, but Atwell’s Police and Fire Equipment, Painesville, Ohio, has a law-enforcement pricing schedule that reduces the cost and will accept the department’s current guns in trade. The cost to the department will be less than $1,000, Kasiewicz said.
The chief said he will use drug enforcement fund money, derived from fines assessed by courts, to pay for the guns.
Kasiewicz is not proposing purchasing sights, because of the cost. That would be up to the officers to supply their own.
