Part of the difference is how much time the departments’ sworn staff spend shooting at their ranges.
Springfield officers are invited to practice and train at an open range once each month, said Lt. Brad Moos. Their Special Operations Team, similar to a SWAT team, trains up to four times a month.
By contrast, the Hamilton department requires eight-hour, twice-a-year sessions of its uniformed officers and monthly, eight-hour sessions of its Special Weapons and Tactics officers, police officials said. SWAT members who use sniper rifles spend an additional eight hours of training each month.
Additional ammunition expenditures go to qualification.
Since 2004, the Ohio Peace Officer Training Association has required police officers to requalify to use a handgun every year on a 60-round course, which takes about three hours, said Brian Buchanan, Hamilton’s rangemaster and training officer.
But, Moos said, it’s not the number of bullets one shoots, it’s the skills learned through the development of a firm understanding of the fundamentals of shooting and the mechanics of each weapon.
“SPD Range officers focus on these fundamentals and the needs of the each individual officer. The quantity of ammunition purchased reflects this,” Moos said.
Springfield police save additional money through annual reality-based firearms training with Laser Shot and Air-soft training weapons.
“Firearms training, in and of itself, does nothing to teach an officer about the prudent use of force,” Moos said. “Reality-based training forces officers to confront unknown situations, involving deadly force, in a controlled environment where they can learn.”
Starting in January, the new state handgun qualification requirement will be a 25-round course, Buchanan said. The new qualification course actually has a lower round count, but can be more challenging to the officer, Moos said.
The state requires police cadets to have 60 hours of firearms training before becoming an officer, but there is no minimum number of hours the state requires to requalify on a firearm, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
“While there is indeed a requirement for peace officers to requalify annually with their firearm, there is no minimum hour requirement. Requalification is generally done through a peace officer’s department/appointing agency,” Tierney said.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s cost of pistol, shotgun and rifle ammunition has varied greatly over the last several years, spending $12,508 in 2008, $6,900 in $2009 and $2,965 in 2011.
The high payout in 2008 represents start up costs the year the agency integrated patrol carbine rifles into its arsenal and includes rounds shot in training and requalification, Lt. John Reedy said.
Due to budget constraints, the sheriff’s office did not purchase ammunition in 2010 and had just enough ammunition in stock to requalify its 171 sworn members. “Basically, as the budgetary situation gets worse we just do the best we can,” Reedy said.
It offset its cost in 2011 by trading in unneeded .308-caliber ammunition for credits toward handgun ammunition.
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