The city of Chadron has an updated firearms policy for the police department. Police Chief Tim Lordino says he started revising the old policy after his department purchased 7 assault rifles…a weapon it did not have…then decided to make a complete revision.

       Lordino adopted an easier to follow format, added definitions the earlier policy lacked and language on firearm safety as well as clarifying several areas…including the Chadron police department’s firearm qualification process and what happens if an officer fails to pass their annual qualification test.

As for the decision to add rifles, Lordino says he saw a need for increased firepower for specific situations…such as this summer’s downtown standoff in Alliance.

Because most Nebraska police departments have rifles, the state law enforcement training center in Grand Island is adding the weapon to its curriculum, so Chadron officers would need to take a rifle with them for full certification even if the department didn’t have them.

The guns…M-16s…were purchased through the Department of Defense as “repurposed” military weapons and each cost about $250…about 1/8th the cost of purchasing a new civilian version of the same weapon.

Each can be fired in automatic or semi-automatic mode, so they have been registered with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Lordino says the rifles will be kept in Chadron squad cars in a locked rack that also holds a shotgun, or in the locked firearms closet at the police station…and will be used only for police purposes.