GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids Police Department is considering placing a Colt M4 semi-automatic rifle in every patrol vehicle used by the force.
Currently the rifles are only issued to the department’s Special Response Team, or SRT, but under a new plan the department would add the high-powered rifles to the traditional, rack-mounted shotguns carried in police cruisers for decades.
Police say the M4 rifles are far more accurate to use at a distance, and ever since Columbine in 1999, police view standard-issue patrol weapons as behind the curve.
The new guns would cost the city approximately $300,000, and a proposal has already been sent to the City Commission for consideration on June 16.
