<The danger has become painfully obvious to any department in the vicinity of Miami-Dade County. Two officers have been murdered in the past nine months by gunmen carrying variations of the AK-47. In September, Miami-Dade officer Jose Somohano was killed and two other officers wounded. In February, Miami Detective James Walker was murdered as he sat in his car.>
I doubt these officers' families would consider it a non-problem.
Ft. Lauderdale police beef up arsenal with new rifles
By the end of the summer, Fort Lauderdale police will be issued high-powered weapons.
miamiherald.com
 RC WHITE / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
Standing beside a target he shot while demonstrating the department's new firepower, Lt. Michael DiMaggio holds a semi-automatic assault rifle similar to ones the department will be purchasing.
BY AMY SHERMAN AND ERIKA BERAS
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Thu, Jun. 05, 2008
Joining a growing number of law enforcement agencies nationwide and in South Florida, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department plans to arm its patrol officers with high-powered rifles to match the firepower of the weapons toted by criminals.
City commissioners gave the green light on Tuesday to purchase the semiautomatic weapons, approving an initial purchase of 100 Colt AR6520 rifles for about $150,000, including ammunition. Officers may be issued the weapons by summer's end.
In making the decision, commissioners cited the mass shootings at Columbine and, more recently, Virginia Tech. They also noted last year's shooting of a Miami-Dade police officer at the hands of a gunman who used a modified Mak-90.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Fort Lauderdale officers who serve on specialized teams, have had access to rifles since the late 1990s, according to Lt. Mike DiMaggio.
Since 2001, other officers have had the right to buy their own at about $850 apiece and carry them if they participated in training. About 130 of more than 400 officers have completed that training.
The weapons will be made available to all officers.
''The goal is to have every patrol officer who is on the road every day to have one in their car,'' said Fort Lauderdale Sgt. Frank Sousa.
Officers will be trained on using the rifles, which have more range than handguns.
Then-Police Chief Bruce Roberts, who abruptly quit last week after tense union negotiations, had requested the more powerful weapons.
Fort Lauderdale officers have seized an increasing number of weapons since 2004, the year Congress lifted the ban on assault weapons. Police confiscated 291 in 2007, up from just 95 in 2004.
Other South Florida police departments have long allowed its officers to carry bigger weapons.
Last year, Miami Police Chief John Timoney authorized similar weapons for his police officers. About one-third of Broward Sheriff's Office deputies carry rifles -- something they got the right to do in 2006. BSO deputies and Miami-Dade police officers generally have to buy their own rifles.
''It's done a lot in terms of confidence and general morale where our people for a long time felt as if they were underpowered and now they have another weapon that they can utilize when coming up against people with assault rifles,'' BSO spokesman Jim Leljedal said.
Many blame the 2004 expiration of the federal ban on assault weapons for the escalation of firepower on the streets of South Florida.
But others say escalating the power of officers' firearms isn't the solution. They believe federal lawmakers need to reinstate the ban on assault weapons.
''It's a fact that [officers] are facing more risk out there,'' said State Rep. Yolly Roberson, a Democrat from Miami. ``Yet I don't believe we can really stop violence with violence. What is important is for us to ban assault weapons period.''
CONCEALED WEAPONS
Roberson fought unsuccessfully in Tallahassee to pass a bill to prevent felons from carrying concealed weapons. The bill was opposed by the National Rifle Association.
Dorothy Schulz, a professor in police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, questions whether having police carrying such powerful weapons creates the wrong image.
''It's just an escalation of firearms power. Police are not military personnel. I think it sends a very negative message to the average person and probably a challenge to the criminals,'' she said.
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