Senate estimates
Posted by dyingoflegacy on 28th May 2008
Bullet crunch hits home

As area police practice firing their weapons, the officers must be more careful than ever not to shoot wide of another target - their budgets.
Area departments have reported huge increases in ammunition prices in the past year, falling in line with a national trend that has been blamed on rising metal prices and the war in Iraq. Recent hikes in the area have ranged from 50 percent to 150 percent, costing departments thousands of dollars more each year.
The skyrocketing ammo prices mean officers at the East Peoria Police Department will do less firearm training, Police Chief Ed Papis said.
The department is being forced to ration its bullets after distributors warned East Peoria that the annual ammunition supply would cost $10,000 this year, he said. About $4,000 has been allocated in the departmental budget for ammunition in recent years, he said.
“It’s been steady for the last 12 years, and then all of the sudden it’s two and a half times what we’re used to paying,” Papis said.
The majority of the increase has occurred within the past six months, he said.
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Most of the bullets are used on the firing range, but Papis said each of the department’s
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42 officers carries about 45 rounds with them while on duty.
He didn’t think the reduction in training would have a significant effect on the officers’ abilities. “We adapt to all adversities,” he said.
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John Mobeck, an officer and range instructor with the Bartonville Police Department, said American-made ammunition has been extremely difficult to find in the past year. The military has demanded most of the available supply as it continues to fight the war in Iraq, he said.
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And when U.S.-made bullets can be found, they’re expensive. A case of pistol rounds that cost $300 about a year ago is now up to $700, Mobeck said.
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So when he orders the department’s ammunition, he is now forced to rely largely on a company based in Korea, which sells at about half the price. The quality control on the bullets is questionable, so it is only used in practice, he said.
“Obviously an officer needs absolute dependency on the ammunition he’s using (when on duty),” he said.
The Illinois State Police also plan to conserve bullets this year by cutting the number of required training sessions for officers in half, said Master Sgt. Brian Ley, a spokesman for the state police.
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Ley said the officers would only be required to go through the exercises twice this year. The state has required four sessions annually for as long as he could remember, but the ammunition supply is simply not there anymore because of the war, he said.
“It wasn’t so much the cost, it was the availability,” Ley said.
Ted Miller, deputy chief of police in Pekin, said his department has stockpiled ammunition in previous years in anticipation of the price increases. The move saved money, but Pekin still expects to spend about $2,500 more this year on ammunition.
But regardless of dramatically rising costs, Miller said the pricey training programs haven’t been cut back in his department.
“Every department has to train,” Miller said. “To do less is to expose yourself to serious liability out there.”
Joe Crawford can be reached at 686-3251 or jcrawford@pjstar.com.

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