um I made a tactical decision to change the uh long gun Armament of the Milwaukee Police Department uh in response to uh what I see is disturbing Trends in terms of how our criminals are arming themselves as well as disturbing Trends regarding mass shootings in the United States some of which as the mayor have indicated have included the victimization of police officers we have been thinking about this for quite some time as a matter of fact training is already underway but in the interest of full engagement with the community I don't one think we're doing something secretly as we uh uh improve the Armament of this Police Department I'm sharing with the community Through you today the reasons for this change and we're doing this verbally as well as in terms of the display before you um the type of armament before you is military grade Armament you are looking at military assault rifles that have been seized from the Felon community of the city of Milwaukee these weapons haven't been been turned in these weapons haven't been found these weapons have been seized by our officers either in confrontations with suspects or pursuant to search warrants of drug houses and Drug locations it's clear I think uh it's obvious that our officers are in are facing a an increasingly dangerous threat to their safety as well as the safety of the community as represented by these weapons The Prudent thing for us to do is respond now clearly the most important weapon in an off at an officer's disposal is his or her good judgment restraint and training now we work hard to see that our officers exercise all are given all three and exercise all three that they they train to the threat they get active shooter training that allows them to have realistic training to properly prepare them for a combat situation we do our best to hire people of good judgment and and we train them in how to use restraint how to talk their way out of issues how to deal with things non-violently but once we've done all of that once we've trained them once we've hired them once we've given them them given them the appropriate uh support to do their job well it's our moral obligation to give them the tools to defend themselves in the community and so we are arming officers of good judgment and restraint and High Caliber training in a way to allow them to better protect themselves in the community officers are going to carry what's known as a patrol rifle uh it's made by Smith and Wesson it's a 223 caliber weapon semi-automatic meaning each time you pull the trigger a single R round will will uh will be fired I have with me the range officer Sergeant Joe sites and uh and officer Ted pente who is a a training officer at the academy uh the two of them can answer more detailed questions if you want once we're done here but they have been actively involved in the training of our police officers and how to manipulate this weapon uh there are other departments that carry it uh we have uh reached out to the uh major city uh police department's Community I can tell you that Oakland California Phoenix Arizona the Las Vegas Metro Police Department Columbus Ohio Chicago El Paso uh Miami Cincinnati San Jose Minneapolis and Denver are all either carrying these weapons or in the process of transitioning to the use of these weapons again responding to the same threats and concerns that we are which are highgrade military assault rifles being seized from criminals against a backdrop of mass shootings in this country many of which have targeted police officers now this uh this change is about Community safety it's about officer safety you should know this weapon is far more accurate than the shotgun we have historically uh carried uh there is virtually no no recoil making it easier to aim and Keep On Target uh the single shot clearly is going to go one single place rather than the dispersal pattern one would expect with the use of a shotgun it can be empoyed at a greater distance which is very important in active Dynamic shooting situations such as been seen in Oakland and Pittsburgh Coline Virginia Tech and so on it can hold more ammunition as you can see by the clip before you um the officer will have more um amunition at his or her disposal we also have a weapon that can penetrate body armor uh you should know that a number of the assaults certainly the Pittsburgh assault where three officers were murdered uh the as salent was wearing body armor as well as carrying an assault weapon uh this is another increasing Trend we're seeing as we do drug raids as well as have encounters with armed suspects that many of them are trying to gain or gaining access to body armor uh particularly those who engage in these mass shooting situations as the mayor indicated so far this year uh we've recovered 111 rifles uh already from our streets um we picked up 334 rifles in last year and 42 of those were military grade assault weapons these are the guns that are most frequently used in mass shootings these are the kinds of weapons that we have to be prepared to confront uh our officers are our criminal element is arming themselves at an increasingly sophisticated rate and as I said before it's Our obligation to see that the police officers of this city have the tools they need to protect themselves and the community and we believe that moving to this particular weapon we'll provide them with that uh so happy to take your questions now and as we get more and more technical you'll see me back you'll see me backing in the direction of my range officer at this point there's been no costs uh We've basically exchanged um current inventory for the new inventory of the rifles no not all the shotguns we had a we had an inventory of both rifles and shotguns um older inventory that uh was used to replace or I'm sorry to exchange for these newer rifles they'll only be carried in squad cars and then they'll deploy them if needed during a crisis situation because what happens is the inventory that we've um exchanged for this rifle is then um obviously sold by the manufacturer and they make a profit that way and what would the value of that be um the department price can get that out $1,350 was the department price uh Department price with everything rle yes that's uh equipped with an optic a sling a light uh in the magazines you know we have a responsibility to respond to that which we learn ourselves directly in our own enforcement activity and we have a responsibility to be alert and aware of national Trends uh the national Trends clearly in the last several years have involved numerous mass shootings perpetrated by individuals with semi-automatic weapons uh we are also seeing reports from many cities many of my colleagues and the major City Chiefs are confronting more and more military assault weapons uh in their drug raids or on their streets I've had a number of conversations with John timoy the police chief in Miami and they have U really they're even further along than we are in terms of what they're facing the weapon of choice for their criminal Community has become the AK-47 and it's been used many many times their officers have been shot with it they've engaged in shootouts with them you know they have moved to this weapon as a way to try even the playing field somewhat recognizing obviously that we don't want to put fully automatic weapons out there in our squads but that we do have to provide our officers with a weapon that has better penetration power and a longer range again this is a training issue uh you know we we absolutely believe that the judgment and Restraint of our officers is critical and a major part of their training these are not deployed or used lightly um but we cannot ignore National Trends or await our first mass shooting uh we have to be prepared for them prepared PR ly prepared properly and we believe that's what we're doing we've selected the appropriate weapon one that has been used elsewhere with success uh that's a reliable weapon uh that's a that that's a that's the appropriate weapon for the kinds of threats we're facing and we're engaged in the training to make sure that no one carries this weapon who has not been thoroughly trained in its use so it's a prudent move it's one we could have done without fanfair but I do think it's important to communicate to the citizen when we do a change like this what's motivated it well I mean we I mean I was you know at a situation just last summer when I was driving around and our officers had uh uh had been shot at with a with an SKS Assault Rifle and all they had in their hands were their 40 caliber pistols um mercifully none of them were hit uh and we re you know we recovered yet another SKS Assault Rifle uh so my sense is um it's a matter of time and you know you know Co a cliche I'd much rather have this deployed and never need it uh than need it and not have it deployed I think as I say you know you you do the Google searches you know what's going on around the country I can't pretend it's not going to happen here and in light of the physical evidence before you certainly the potential for it happening here is very strong and it gets deployed frequently as a matter of course because if we're going to a you know a bank robbery in which it's been you a weapon has been displayed somebody is going to take out the shotgun as a backup weapon because it's got a longer range uh but we recognize its limitations one of the limitations is the dispersal pattern uh this is this this weapon has been in the Armament of police departments for 50 years and although they are you know of a high higher quality than they were 50 years ago the fact is it's essentially a dispersal weapon you fire it the further you are from the target the more the buck shot spreads uh the chances of hitting somebody who you know is not your target increase with that reality and we feel we need a weapon that we can deploy from distance with a high caliber sight uh with no recoil that's extremely accurate that can allow us to in fact use less violence to achieve the same end which is neutralizing a heavily armed thre