NEW ALBANY POLICE DEPARTMENT - New Albany, Ohio

3. Rifles
c. When a vehicle with an assigned shotgun is taken outside of New Albany
for training, maintenance or radio repair, the shotgun is to be removed
from the vehicle, unloaded, and secured in the gun lockers in the
station’s armory.
The New Albany Police Department utilizes semi-automatic rifles. An officer who
obtains a qualifying score on a rifle course of fire approved by a Department
Firearms Instructor, the Chief of Police, and OPOTA is permitted to place the rifle
in-service while on duty. No other person(s) are authorized to do so.
An officer may carry a personally owned rifle in lieu of a Department owned rifle
upon successful qualification of the above-mentioned course of fire. A
Department Firearms Instructor and the Chief of Police must approve this
weapon.
When qualified officers carry a rifle while on-duty, it shall be considered in
service. They must also advise the on-duty dispatcher that they have a rifle
when they mark in-service for their tour of duty.
When the rifle is in-service, the following guidelines shall apply:
Department rifles are assigned to designated police cruisers and are
secured in a locked gun rack in the front passenger compartment.
Surplus rifles are placed in the departmental armory.
An officer placing his/her personally owned rifle in-service shall be
required to mark in-service with the dispatcher.
The rifle shall be secured in a soft rifle case locked in the trunk of the
cruiser or unmarked vehicle or locked in a gun rack in the front
passenger compartment as follows: chamber empty; safety engaged;
four loaded 20- or 30-round magazines in the rifle case magazine pouch
or carrier. Only ammunition issued by the Department is authorized for
use in either Department or personally owned rifle.
The rifle is the primary weapon to be considered for use in most tactical
situations, as well as those in which distances exceed the officer’s
effectiveness with the handgun or shotgun. The on-duty supervisor or
senior officer controls on-scene deployment of the rifle.
The rifle is not carried into a contained/controlled environment with a
round in the chamber. If this is unpreventable, the weapon safety is
engaged with the muzzle of the weapon pointed in a safe direction.
It is the responsibility of the deploying officer to ensure that the rifle is
returned to the cruiser/unmarked vehicle and secured in the approved
manner as soon as practical.
In all cases, the Department’s Response to Resistance policies apply.
When a department owned rifle is not secured in a locked gun rack in a
marked patrol cruiser, it shall be secured in the departmental armory.
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