Loaded gun stolen from Camano Island cop car

[DoubleTapDrew]

"The rifle was inside of a locked compartment inside the patrol car."

I call BS. Or was it a CA approved lock! I had to.

That's probably newsspeak for a pelican or storm type case.

 

[DHJenkins]

You can pull the lock out of a crown vic trunk with a slide hammer in no time.

Or you can just punch around with a screwdriver and pry it out.

After all, most police cars don't have any sort of car alarm.

If they're going to store that type of gear in the trunk, they should chain the inside with a combo lock that only allows the trunk to open wide enough to reach the lock - that's what the FBI SWAT vehicles used to do back when they drove caprices down here.

 

[bababooey32]

Locked Compartment

The rifle was inside of a locked compartment inside the patrol car."

I call BS.

Every jurisdiction I have ever lived in, the police cruisers always had locking mechanisms for their carbines or shotguns. Sometimes it was a vertical "rack" between the driver and passenger with a locking "grip" around the trigger guard area . Sometimes it was locked in a lockbox inside the trunk. I've seen one jurisdiction where there was a rack apparently built into the headliner above the officer's heads where a rifle or shotgun could be stored.

In any case, I'd bet a hefty sum the gun was in a locking mechanism of some kind. Of course, as has been said here many times, if a thief wants something bad ednough, there isn't much chance of keeping him from getting it.

Silly me. I thought long guns for PD's were required to be kept in a weapons room at the Cop Shop. Never thought about them being in the officer's possession all the time.

I'm not sure why everyone is so rankled about the cop keeping a gun in his car. Over in S&T, the gold standard procedure for securing your home and waiting for the police to show up. Do you want the officer to have to "swing by" HQ to pick up his long-gun before coming to your house? Or would you prefer that he show up with no option but his sidearm for fending off the home invaders?

As we've seen, home invaders canbring some heavy weaponry with them: Home invasion suspects face murder charges

When police arrested them, they also had a small machine gun.

Arrests made, more expected in home-invasion case

According to a police report, one of the male suspects had a rifle in his possession during the incident, which he used to hit one of the victims. Another reportedly had a machine gun.

So, personally, I'd like my local police to travel with their long guns handy.