At their Oct. 25 meeting, the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen reversed their previous approval of a weapons upgrade for the Waldoboro Police Department.
The weapons upgrade would have allowed the police department to replace their current M-14 rifles with military surplus M-16 rifles. The rifles were available via a federal program that provides military surplus equipment to police departments for only the cost of shipping.
Waldoboro police could have requested eight rifles at a total cost of $336 for shipping the guns, Waldoboro Police Chief Bill Labombarde said. The guns are valued at around $8000.
The guns would have been placed in each cruiser, and provided the department with “another tool if we need it,” Labombarde said. “It’s not going to change the philosophy of the Waldoboro Police Department.”
At their Oct. 11 meeting, the board approved the upgrade 4 to 1, with Chairman Clinton Collamore opposed. Following that meeting, Vice Chairman Steve Cartwright reconsidered his vote.
At the Oct. 11 meeting, the issue was brought forward as an amendment to the agenda because the police chief had just heard about the town’s approval to participate in the program the previous Friday.
“I really didn’t give it enough thought at the meeting,” Cartwright said. At Cartwright’s request the board reconsidered their decision on Oct. 25. “I feel like I made a mistake in voting for this.”
Cartwright said he heard from some residents that disagreed with the vote, and the more he thought about it, the more he regretted supporting the upgrade, he said. “We’re a small town, and the Waldoboro Police Department really doesn’t need semi-automatic assault rifles.”
Cartwright’s comments echoed statements made by Collamore and several residents. “This is Waldoboro, not some big city,” Collamore said in a telephone interview following the Oct. 11 meeting. “I just question whether we need military-grade semi-automatic rifles.”
Cartwright said he feels less safe knowing the Waldoboro Police have M-16s in their cruisers.
“I hope we trust our police department to carry weapons,” Labombarde said. The training for rifles is thorough and state mandated, and every officer receives training on all weapons, the chief said.
Currently, the department has two M-14 rifles. These are military-grade semi-automatic rifles. The term assault rifle refers to the ability to hold the rifle steady during rapid fire and the amount of ammunition a user may carry. The M-16 has less kick and the ammunition is smaller, so more can be carried. The M-16 is more frequently referred to as an assault rifle, but M-14 is sometimes referred to as one as well.
At the Oct. 25, several weapons experts addressed the selectmen in opposition to the upgrade, including US Army Staff Sgt. Phil Carlson, a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. Carlson colloquially described his duties in the Army as “a door buster,” but he served in a variety of urban response roles and scenarios.
Carlson said the Army is returning to the M-14s for close combat scenarios for its increased accuracy and because their larger cartridges – .308 as opposed to the M-16s .223 – are less likely to pass through a target and inflict collateral damage.
Overall, Carlson said the M-14s are better for situations in which precision and “clean kills” are important. M-16s are valuable for “putting a lot of ammo downrange” because the M-16 has less kick.
“These M-16s are not worth a darn for law enforcement,” Carlson said. He suggested upgrades to the department’s M-14s, but recommended staying with those rifles.
When they reconsidered the vote, the board voted 4 to 1 against the upgrade, with only Selectman Craig Cooley in favor of the M-16s. Cooley, an administrator at the Rockport Police Department, said he recently purchased M-16s for that department through the same program.