Police training is being affected by shortages that are causing huge delays in departments receiving ammunition supplies.
The delays are so bad — some orders are taking months to arrive — that one chief used his personal stock to cover department training.
South Jacksonville Police Chief Eric Hansell has placed two ammunition orders this year — a January order for four cases of training ammunition and a February order for two cases for officers’ duty handguns, he said.
“The order from February just came in” Tuesday, Hansell said, noting the January order still has not arrived.
The department has exhausted its supply of training ammunition.
The department has a minimum of two training days a year during which from eight to 10 officers train with handguns and rifles, Hansell said.
“We are talking about 3,000 rounds of ammunition just for training a year,” Hansell said.
Because of the delay in its order, the department did not have enough training ammunition in stock and Hansell brought in several hundred rounds from his personal supply to get them through the second day, he said.
Village trustees are aware that Hansell used his personal supply for training and he will be reimbursed once the training supply arrives, he said.
While the department’s training supply is depleted, its duty supply of ammunition is not.
“We don’t go through our duty supply quickly, but we do have to rotate our stock,” Hansell said.
Though the cause of the shortage is multi-faceted, including the bankruptcy of ammunition manufacturer Remington, which temporarily disrupted production, and an increase in demand by buyers.
Beardstown Police Chief Martin Coad placed an order in April and was told it would be at least a year before it is received, he said.
“Our training has had to be limited,” Coad said. “We haven’t been given any direct reason as to why it’ll take so long.”
Even other suppliers have told Coad it would take from nine months to a year to fill his order.
“We are going to have to put in our order for next year soon if we are going to get it in time for when we need it,” Coad said.
Without knowing if or when the problem will get any better, Hansell is hoping to start building up his department’s supply to avoid future depletion.
“I’ll be ordering this month or in November and, hopefully, we’ll start to build a little stockpile,” he said. “We have to plan two years in advance. Hopefully in the future we won’t be to the level where I have to provide the ammo.”
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October 16, 2021 at 01:36AM
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Ammo shortages impact police training - Jacksonville Journal-Courier
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