A few weeks ago we read a story about a police chief or sheriff in a major metro area who couldn’t or wouldn’t qualify with a firearm, but carried it anyway (“L’etat, c’est moi.”) Then there was another one, this time a female (first one was a guy). So we went looking for the links to do a story and we didn’t find ’em. We did find a third less-than-straight-shootin’ Sheriff, this guy in the Tampa, FL area (Hillsborough County, maybe?) So we’ve got the links on the FL guy but not the other two.

Can any of you wise folks hook us up?

(We’ve been off having adventures: buying ammo, getting locked out of our range, and having the car up and croak on us, ½ mile from the Manor. While the other two vehicles are in the shop. Shiny).

This entry was posted in Administrivia on by Hognose.

About Hognose

Former Special Forces 11B2S, later 18B, weapons man. (Also served in intelligence and operations jobs in SF).

8 thoughts on “Quick blog: CLEOs who can’t qual?”

Aesop

http://thegunwriter.blogs.heraldtribune.com/17445/flagler-county-sheriff-cant-shoot-straight/

Hognose Post author

That’s the Florida guy. There’s another dude, and a chick, out there with similar problems. I think the chick is in the middle Atlantic states somewhere. Thanks for taking a shot at it.

Aesop

I tried about 30 different permutations of “cop/sheriff/deputy/chief can’t shoot/qualify”, etc., and the only other tales I came up with were for the Richlands NC chief who biffed qual and retired in 2012, and the SF CA chief unable to hit a barn from inside back in 2008.

I blame gun-hating meme-killers doing judicious after-the-fact editing of content., but it could just be buried by debris on Google.

The FL guy was the only thing I spotted for this calendar year.

Haven’t tried the LEO websites yet.

I figure Tam would have caught anything that goofy between Chicongo and Philly. Maybe for mid-Atlantic, Oleg has something…

‘course, the chiefs are generally the least of the problem.

Once shot a match at the old LAPD Academy range behind Dodger Stadium. If you think the splatter-fire bullet holes in a civilian range’s ceiling, floor, walls, etc. are scary, don’t ever see what any city’s finest do when handed live rounds.

But at least it explains why heavies coming into LAX swing no farther north in the pattern than East Los Angeles. The police range is a hazard to everything in the air.

Including birds.

Hognose Post author

Look at what Omaha just did — Polish ambush around an armed robber. When he engaged them, they had 360º contagious fire going, blew some 30+ rounds and hit the guy three or four times. Amazingly, they didn’t hit any cops or bystanders with all this unaimed spray-n-pray, but they did kill a crew member from the COPS TV show. The asshole who precipitated it all was committing armed robberies with an airsoft toy, and then he engaged the cops with his realistic toy, producing realistic counterfire. Can’t say the world will miss the robber, one Cortez Washington, for whom the OPD was, and this will shock you, already in possession of a mugshot. Cortez, old boy: see you in Hell, pal. But what part of “know your target” do these cops not understand?

GBS

“A passing score is 80 percent, or 32 of 40 rounds in the “scoring area” of the targets. The stages vary from a 1-yard distance to the target to 15 yards. There is also a time limit.”

Wow…how big is the “scoring area”…human sized???

Hognose Post author

One is reminded of Deputy Dawg. “Ah seldom miss at this range.” BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM! “Dang. Ah missed.”

David W.

Kinda old but: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-police-chief-has-skipped-target-practice-3281784.php?cmpid=fb

http://medinagazette.northcoastnow.com/2012/04/19/medina-police-chief-didnt-qualify-in-firearm-proficency/ Seems he missed it twice with a few years in between

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/09/27/drug-sniffing-dog-is-the-only-qualified-police-officer-in-nm-town-after-chief-resigns-yes-really/ this… wow. I honestly don’t know how this can happen. Police chief can’t legally own a gun.

TRX

A few years back I read one of the FBI-expose books that talked about the revolving door at the top after J. Edgar vapor locked. According to the author, the each incumbent and all his cronies immediately descended on the armorer to get their .38 caliber symbols of authority, though none had ever taken any firearms training, nor were they actually “special agents”, just bureaucrats.

Googling for titles, it might have been “The FBI Pyramid” by Mark Felt. As I remember, the entire book was one long whine about why he thought he should have been appointed director instead of some other schmuck. Then, a few years back, he claimed he was the “Deep Throat” of Watergate. Even if it’s the right book, Felt is hardly a reliable source… if you ever decide to haul the FBI up into the light, it’s not a bad book to start with, though. There are a number of books by disaffected former FBI agents, or paragons of rectitude like Special Agent Robert Hanssen, or general news articles about the always-popular Lon Horiuchi…