Police Will Replace All Pistols After Misfiring Incidents

After a series of “unexplained discharges,” the Milwaukee Police Department plans to replace all of its department-issued pistols with a new weapon from a different manufacturer.

The change, which will cost approximately $500,000, will see officers switch from a SIG Sauger P320 to a Glock 45.

The Milwaukee Police Association, the union for rank-and-file officers, says the department-issued SIG Sauger firearms have inadvertently fired three times in two years, twice injuring officers. On Sept. 10, in the process of investigating a hit-and-run crash, one officer shot another without ever taking a weapon out of the holster or pulling the trigger.

The union sued the city over the issue, demanding a change.

“These unexplained discharges are a serious concern,” said police chief Jeffrey Norman in a press conference Monday afternoon. “I am very pleased we are seeing some forward momentum on this.”

“There is no higher priority than the safety of the people who protect our city,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “They have enough on their plate to worry about. They certainly shouldn’t have to worry about their firearms firing unexpectedly.”

The city, with Common Council approval, is to use an estimated $450,000 in police department asset forfeiture funds for the effort. It will leverage an additional $43,000 credit with existing supplier Streicher’s that is left over from the 2019 transition to the SIG Sauer weapon.

Norman said the transition would start “early next year” and would take between five and six months. “This is not easy. We are talking about well over 1,600 members.”

Streicher’s will also take back the existing weapons and provide the city compensation. A city representative did not have a specific figure for the compensation the city would receive for the weapons.

“I know that the members we represent want a tool in their belt that will be trusted and reliable if they need to use it and won’t cause injuries to themselves or others unintentionally,” said MPA President Andrew Wagner. He said his organization will withdraw its lawsuit once the council approves the spending allocation.

Nationally, more than a dozen federal lawsuits are currently pending about the SIG Sauger weapon. In 2017, SIG Sauer settled a class-action lawsuit over a safety defect in the gun involving its lack of a mechanical disconnector. But Milwaukee’s weapons were manufactured after that specific issue was resolved.

An investigation of the weapon that shot MPD officer Adam Maritato in the right leg in 2020 found it lacked a safety lever spring, as did all of the other MPD firearms, but that the spring was removed from the gun’s design. The weapon was first manufactured in 2014 and some lawsuits take issue with the manufacturing process used to machine tool the weapon.

In 2019, a press release from the manufacturer quoted then-police chief Alfonso Morales praising the gun. “We chose the Sig Sauer P320 as the official duty firearm for the men and women of the Milwaukee Police Department based on the pistol’s superior performance, accuracy, and dependability throughout our rigorous testing process,” said Morales. “During this transition, we are finding that our officers appreciate the ability to choose their grip size based on the modularity of the P320, and we are seeing the positive effects of this comfort in higher qualifying scores overall. Our transition to the SIG Sauer P320 has been seamless, and we couldn’t be more pleased with our decision to make it the official duty pistol of the Milwaukee Police Department.”

Norman said knowing the inner mechanics of how the last decision was made was “out of his league.” He was a district captain at the time. “I know that there was a lot of different options looked at at the time, but this is where we see the most productive resolution to this challenge.”

“This is our best option in order to move forward and to bring some reassurance to our members, but also to our public,” said Norman.

“We don’t have plans presently for legal action against SIG Sauger,” said the mayor. But the city isn’t closing the door on the possibility, or of pursuing action against Streicher’s, which, according to city officials, isn’t as shielded under federal law from liability as the manufacturer is.

The proposal to use asset forfeiture funds will result in MPD having a smaller pot of money to spend on other equipment and training. A $1.48 million plan for 2022 called for purchasing everything from a new navigational system for its harbor patrol boat to a new freezer for its ice cream truck. The department also planned to purchase a seated metal detector designed to search those in custody for weapons hidden under their clothing and a new pole camera, purchase $300,000 in software upgrades and pay its $100,000 lease at MKE Urban Stables with the funds. A total of $85,000 was to be set aside for department-wide training on “Fair & Impartial Policing.”

The money comes from property seized during arrests involving drug trafficking, child pornography, money laundering and other criminal activity. It is funded by the seizure of cash found on a drug dealer and the sale of electronics seized from those convicted of distributing child pornography and other federal crimes.