One way law enforcement works, “protect and serve,” is by taking guns out of the hands of criminals. But we’ve discovered every year that thousands of weapons once used by officers are found at crime scenes.
CBS News partnered with nonprofit newsrooms The Trace and Reveal of the Center for Investigative Reporting for this joint investigation.
We surveyed two hundred police agencies across the country and found that a majority sell their weapons when they decide to upgrade their arsenal. What about our local law enforcement?
Our team has identified at least five agencies in the Bay Area that sell their guns, while two agencies have chosen not to engage in the practice.
For months, we at CBS News Bay Area and our colleagues at other CBS stations and the network have been investigating what appears to be common policies among law enforcement agencies across the country.
When officers’ weapons reach their expiration dates, many departments sell those old weapons to gun dealers in exchange for a rebate or credit toward the purchase of new weapons for their departments.
However, some arms dealers in the US are known to be irresponsible, meaning that weapons sold to them could end up in the illegal arms market.
The problem is that law enforcement agencies don’t know which dealers are good and which are bad, because of a federal law known as the Tiahrt Amendment, which prohibits the disclosure of most gun trace information.
Our research has uncovered cases where old police weapons have been found at crime scenes, raising the question: is it good policy for police to sell their old weapons to dealers?
In the Bay Area, we found that five agencies engage in this practice: the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, the San Francisco Police Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, and the Oakland Police Department.
It is estimated that these five agencies alone have sold more than four thousand weapons. That’s something Josh Scharff of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence finds concerning.
“So when they sell or transfer decommissioned firearms to gun dealers, they may not know that they are ultimately selling guns to gun dealers who supply the criminal market,” Scharff said.
One way to eliminate this risk is to completely stop selling old guns to dealers. Two departments here in the Bay Area are taking this approach: the San Jose Police Department and the San Francisco County Sheriff’s Office.
We spoke with San Francisco County Sheriff Paul Miyamoto to discuss why his department isn’t selling its guns.
San Francisco County Sheriff Paul Miyamoto says it has been sheriff’s policy throughout his 28 years of service to destroy decommissioned service weapons.
“We want to avoid any trace of involvement in what happens to a firearm after it is purchased from a third party,” said Sheriff Miyamoto.
Unlike other departments that sell their old weapons to gun dealers, Sheriff Miyamoto says his agency only offers retired officers the opportunity to purchase their personal service weapons; all other weapons are sent for destruction.
“We just choose not to do it that way so that we know we have complete control over our firearms from the moment we purchase them, to the moment they are distributed to our staff, to the moment they are collected and stored. , and then until they are destroyed,” said Sheriff Miyamoto.
The sheriff told us he knows many other departments choose to sell their guns to dealers, and he understands why.
“Because of the financial benefit of this becoming part of your overall budgeting or financing for other things or other material items,” said Sheriff Miyamoto.
But for his office, the peace of mind that comes with destroying the weapons outweighs any financial incentive.
“The question is always whether it is necessary to fill that financing gap. I think the concept of selling back to a responsible FFL, the federal firearms licensee, is something that we hope would lead to responsible gun ownership if purchased by that third party. The unfortunate part is what we mentioned earlier in terms of gun safety itself, which is that there are many different crimes committed by people who are irresponsible or have had their firearms stolen. And that’s what we’re challenged with, we’re trying to find that balance,” said Sheriff Miyamoto.
The sheriff told us he understands why the policies of departments selling their old guns can be controversial.
The number of guns on the streets in this country remains a major problem. The sheriff emphasizes that the most important action a department can take is to ensure that every gun is owned by a responsible party.
“The ultimate goal is to ensure that anyone who legally owns a firearm does so responsibly and safely and I think that is part of the key to ensuring that we get to a better place where there is less weapons,” said Sheriff Miyamoto. .
His office contributes to the solution by ensuring that their weapons are destroyed instead of increasing the count.
