Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Williamsburg police will replace Sigs with Glocks
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WILLIAMSBURG — Williamsburg police will replace their Sigs with Glocks due to concerns about accidental discharge.
The Williamsburg City Council voted Monday to purchase seven Glock 47 MOS8 Gen5 9 mm pistols from Kiesler Police Supply based in Jeffersonville, Indiana, for $4,480.
The pistols cost $732 each. Six holsters will cost $154 each, and the city will receive $200 in trade for each of the eight firearms it currently has.
Williamsburg has seven officers but had an extra weapon as a backup, according to Williamsburg Police Chief Jason Mochal.
Ray O’Herron Company in Danville, Illinois had bid $4,664 — $5,124 for the new weapons and $185 each, or $1,480 total, for the Sigs in trade.
Mochal told the Williamsburg City Council a few weeks ago that the Sig Sauer P320 has caused concern nationally because of alleged accidental discharge.
According to a study, during normal usage the torque on the firearm is enough to accidentally discharge the Sig Sauer P320, Mochal said.
Mochal presented bids for new weapons for the police department during the Aug. 11 city council meeting.
There’s a little bit of a savings on holsters in one bid, Mochal said, but there’s more of a trade-in on the other. Mochal had hoped for $150 in trade for each of the Sigs; both companies offered more.
Last month Mochal had estimated the cost of the new weapons at $6,000-$7,000. Both bids came in at less than $5,000.
Mochal said he’d contacted a third company that sells Glocks but it wouldn’t take the Sigs in trade.
Former Police Chief Justin Parsons had set aside money for vests, Mochal told the council last month, but not all of the vests needed replaced, so Mochal can use that money for the new pistols.
“I don’t remember when we got these,” said Mochal of the current Sigs. He thinks the department has had them for about eight years.
The new pistols will be in service long after Mochal is gone, he said.
The council voted unanimously to buy the pistols from Kiesler. Councilwoman Anne Zalenski was absent.
