justbill said:
Interesting. I'm kind of surprised a large force such as Detroit would issue a "gimmick round" like the EFMJ. Can you elaborate on the dissatisfaction?
Detroit is not allowed to use hollow point ammo because it is too dangerous and might hurt someone. The department was sued (or threatened) because it was a mostly white force with a mostly black populace. It was implied that it was racist to use hollowpoint ammunition. Really. So the department can not use hollowpoint ammo even though the force is mostly African-American officers now. I attached an article from the Detroit News that talks about the controversy. They won and Detroit was never issued Hollow Point ammo.
Since they have been using the EFMJ, there are two publicized instances where they had the round bounce off of someone's head and another get caught in a winter coat. I haven't checked to see what they have been issued in the past 6 months or so, but I do know that they have been using EFMJ.
===============Detroit News=============
The Criminal Protection League cries out in protest.
http://www.detnews.com/2000/metro/0008/02/d01-99468.htm
Police get deadly ammo
Detroit cops say hollow-point rounds protect bystanders. Critics plan to protest decision
By George Hunter / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A stipulation in the new Detroit police contract that allows officers to use hollow-point bullets has some residents and city officials up in arms, but police say the new bullets are safer than the ammunition in use.
Hollow-point bullets expand on impact, which can seriously damage internal organs. Because of the damage the bullets can inflict, they remain outlawed under the Geneva Convention's rules of war.
If hollow-point bullets are potentially too damaging to be used in wars, they shouldn't be used by Detroit police, said Ron Scott, director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality. Scott said the organization is planning a demonstration against the use of hollow-point ammunition.
"By using hollow-point bullets, the Detroit Police Department has thrown down the gauntlet," Scott said. "It's a statement that they're not going to just try to stop someone until the danger is over. The point is to destroy, maim and kill."
But most Metro Detroit police departments -- including Grosse Pointe, West Bloomfield Township, Livonia, Michigan State Police and the Wayne, Oakland and Macomb County sheriff's departments -- already use hollow-point bullets, which the departments call limited-penetration, full-expansion bullets. Most big city police departments, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, use hollow-point ammunition.
Hollow-point bullets are safer than the standard bullet, known as full metal jacket bullets, currently employed by Detroit police because hollow-point bullets are less likely to pass through the intended target and strike an innocent bystander, said Rich Weaver, secretary and treasurer of the Detroit Police Officer's Association. Hollow-point bullets are much less likely to pass through a body because they expand on impact.
"The full-metal jacket bullets often go clean through a person's body with enough force to cause damage to other people," said Weaver, who researched different types of ammunition two years ago for the police department. "With hollow-points, there's less risk of innocent people being hurt."
Another problem with the standard bullet is that it makes a clean wound, and the person who is shot often can continue to fight, Weaver said.
"It's not like the police are going around shooting innocent people," Weaver said. "And when we do have a reason to shoot somebody, we want them to be incapacitated as quickly as possible. Hollow-points serve that purpose."
But Detroit Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she strongly opposes hollow-point bullets because, if police do mistakenly shoot someone, it's likely to result in death.
"We just settled a case where the police went into a man's house and arrested him by mistake," Cockrel said. "He wasn't shot -- but what if he had been? The chances of him dying from a hollow-point bullet would be much greater."
While Cockrel said she appreciates the dangers that Detroit police face every day, "they do make mistakes sometimes. And, then, if you issue hollow-point bullets, you're likely to have another grieving mother and father at a funeral."
Council blocked hollow-points
The Detroit Police Commission approved the use of hollow-point bullets in January 1999. But the Commission's approval was rendered void when the city council refused to allow the city to buy the ammunition.
Cockrel said she plans to fight the issuance of hollow-point ammunition again.
"I'm looking into whether or not the arbitrator's decision (allowing hollow-point bullets to be used) is legally binding, or if it's still something that can be challenged," Cockrel said. "If there is a way to legally challenge this, I'm going to vote against it. You can take that to the bank."
Detroit police aren't carrying the new ammunition yet. Chief Benny Napoleon must approve the bullets before his officers can use them. In the past, Napoleon has strongly supported the use of hollow-point bullets.
The Detroit Police Officers Association has recommended two types of hollow-point bullets for approval: The Winchester partial gold round; and the CCI-Speer gold dot, both for use in .40-caliber Glocks.
"Those bullets expand less than other hollow-points," Weaver said. "But they still create a large enough wound channel to effectively stop a criminal."
Brass back hollow-points
Several Detroit police officers welcomed the arbitrator's decision to allow hollow-points.
"If the department supplies the hollow-points, I will use them," said Sgt. T.J. Smoot, a 30-year-veteran.
Police spokesman Octaveious Miles said he'll likely use a combination of hollow-point bullets and full-metal jacket ammunition.
"Hollow-point bullets are effective at close to moderate range," Miles said. "However, if a incident occurs where you are forced to use your weapon at a distance, hollow-points are not as effective as full metal jackets."
Officers in suburban police departments said it's time for Detroit cops to begin using hollow-point bullets.
"It's long overdue," Farmington Hills Police Chief William Dwyer said. "It's a safer bullet. There has been some debate about them because the injury can be more severe to the person who is wounded by a hollow-point. But police officers only fire, only use deadly force, in order to kill. We don't fire our weapons to wound."
Bullets stir controversy
The controversy of hollow-point bullets isn't confined to Detroit. In New York, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was sharply criticism when he announced that New York cops would be issued hollow-point bullets a few days after Amadou Diallo, an unarmed street vendor, was shot 19 times by four New York police officers.
In response to the criticism, Giuliani said that if the police had used hollow-point bullets, they wouldn't have had to shoot Diallo as many times.
When Los Angeles police were allowed to use hollow-point bullets in 1990, legal challenges to stop the issuance of the ammunition failed.
New York transit police were issued hollow-point ammunition in 1990. Since then, only one person has been hit by a hollow-point bullet passing through the body of the intended victim. That compares with 17 bystanders who were hit during that time by full-metal jacket bullets that passed through the bodies of people shot by police.
But according to a 1989 study published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, 80 percent of the shots fired in police shoot-outs miss their targets.
"More often than not, police miss what they're shooting at," Scott said. "That means an innocent bystander is more likely to be killed if the police are using hollow-points."
Hollow-point bullets have been controversial for more than a century. During the Hague Disarmament Conference of 1899, representatives of 26 nations decided to disallow the use of hollow-point bullets during wartime. The subsequent Versailles and Geneva peace treaties also outlawed the use of the ammunition.
Detroit News Staff Writer David G. Grant and Mike Martindale contributed to this report.
