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The Cambridge Police Department is set to spend nearly $600,000 of the city’s budget to replace more than 400 guns, despite objection from residents and councilors over the need — and the price tag.
The City Council approved the purchase in a 6-3 vote on Monday night. The approval marks CPD’s second major expenditure on firearms over the past seven years; the department’s firearms are typically only replaced every eight to ten years, according to a letter sent to the City Council from Yi-An Huang ’05, the city manager.
The purchase comes amid controversy surrounding the P320 — the department’s current model — which is no longer carried by federally licensed firearm dealers in the state. Complaints with manufacturer Sig Sauer have piled up around the country, alleging that models of the P320 fired without an intentional trigger pull.
The issue has also directly affected CPD: Former Lieutenant Thomas J. Ahern is actively suing both the city and Sig Sauer after claiming that his gun discharged in a vehicle with six other officers.
Sig Sauer did not respond to a request for comment. City spokesperson Jeremy H. Warnick declined to comment on Ahern’s ongoing lawsuit.
City Solicitor Megan Bayer told the City Council that the request to replace the department’s firearms is not related to the ongoing litigation in a Thursday Finance Committee meeting.
“Our law enforcement public safety department is asking to replace firearms that are outdated, increasingly difficult to maintain,” Mayor E. Denise Simmons said in the Monday meeting.
“So this isn't about expanding departments’ capabilities,” she added. “It’s about ensuring our public safety personnel have equipment that functions properly when needed.”
In a statement to the City Council accompanying the request, Huang wrote, “The manufacturer has ceased production of the model currently used and replacements are almost impossible to source.”
While part of the funds requested will replace training rifles, more than $300,000 will be used to buy new handguns for officers, though they have yet to choose a model to replace the P320.
The funds will come from Cambridge’s free cash reserves — the unrestricted, available funds from the previous fiscal year that can be used for appropriations — as opposed to CPD’s $81 million budget.
“This expense is a non-recurring cost and including it would unnecessarily increase our operating budget,” CPD Commissioner Christine A. Elow wrote in a letter to the Council.
Elow also noted that if the purchase had come as a part of the department’s budget, the firearms would not have come in time to train officers.
The gun purchase will accompany the department’s rollout of body-worn cameras, which require new holsters that will activate the cameras when a weapon is drawn.
But as threats to the city’s federal funding hang high, some councilors remained on the fence about pulling from the city’s reserves.
“I think, as we're in a critical time for our community and talking, especially for Cambridge dollars,” Councilor Ayesha M. Wilson said at the meeting, “we can only appreciate that this is such a contentious conversation.”
While Wilson ultimately voted to approve the funding, Councilors Patty M. “Patty” Nolan ‘80, Sumbul Siddiqui, and Jivan Sobhrino-Wheeler voted against.
Despite some councilors’ hesitancy, Simmons said the purchase was necessary to ensure the department is well-equipped to maintain public safety in the city.
“This is modern modernization and not militarization. So we have a responsibility to make sure that the tools that our public safety personnel carry are safe, reliable, and aligned with best practices,” Simmons added.
—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.
—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.
