The Cambridge Police Department plans to spend almost $600,000 from the city’s budget to replace over 400 firearms, despite pushback from some residents and council members about whether it’s necessary-and the high cost.
The City Council gave the green light with a 6-3 vote on Monday evening. This will be CPD’s second big firearms purchase in seven years; usually, their guns get swapped out every eight to ten years, according to a letter from city manager Yi-An Huang ’05 addressed to the council.
This buy comes during some controversy around the P320-the current gun model used by CPD-which is no longer sold by federally licensed dealers here. Across the country, there have been complaints about Sig Sauer’s P320 firing without someone actually pulling the trigger on purpose.
The problem hit close to home too: Former Lieutenant Thomas J. Ahern is suing both Cambridge and Sig Sauer after saying his gun went off inside a vehicle with six other officers present.
Sig Sauer didn’t reply when asked for comment. City spokesperson Jeremy H. Warnick also declined to discuss Ahern’s lawsuit since it’s still ongoing.
City Solicitor Megan Bayer told the Finance Committee on Thursday that this firearm replacement request isn’t connected to that lawsuit.
“Our law enforcement public safety department is asking to replace firearms that are outdated, increasingly difficult to maintain,” Mayor E. Denise Simmons said at Monday’s meeting.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 sent along with the funding request, Huang explained, “The manufacturer has ceased production of the model currently used and replacements are almost impossible to source.”
Some of the money will go toward replacing training rifles, but more than $300,000 is planned for new handguns-though they haven’t picked which model will replace the P320 yet.
The funds will come from Cambridge’s free cash reserves-basically leftover money from last year that can be spent as needed-not directly from CPD’s $81 million annual budget.
“This expense is a non-recurring cost and including it would unnecessarily increase our operating budget,” CPD Commissioner Christine A. Elow wrote in her letter to Council members.
Elow also pointed out that if this had been part of their regular budget process, they wouldn’t have gotten the guns in time for proper officer training.
This gun purchase goes hand-in-hand with rolling out body cameras that need special holsters activating them whenever an officer draws their weapon.
But even with all this planned spending, some councilors were still uneasy about dipping into reserves while federal funding remains uncertain.
“I think, as we’re in a critical time for our community and talking, especially for Cambridge dollars,” Councilor Ayesha M. Wilson said during discussions, “we can only appreciate that this is such a contentious conversation.”
Wilson voted yes in the end but Councillors Patty M. “Patty” Nolan ‘80, Sumbul Siddiqui and Jivan Sobhrino-Wheeler opposed it.
Simmons defended the purchase saying it’s crucial so police have what they need for public safety here in Cambridge:
“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 at 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.
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