Most police officers never fire a weapon. But if a cop has to pull their sidearm, they want to be confident it won’t accidentally fire a round into their foot.
Yet the San Francisco Police Department waited years to retire a troubled gun model used by more than 50 officers, despite claims of it malfunctioning and injuring law enforcement officers across the country.
For several years, the P320 pistol, made by New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer, has reportedly been firing at times without the trigger being pulled. A 2022 federal lawsuit filed by more than 20 law enforcement officers claimed the gun injured them. The suit alleges that there had been more than 100 other incidents of the gun firing due to malfunction. In some cases the gun reportedly went off while in a holster.
Sig Sauer, which did not respond to a request for comment, previously told the Associated Press that it stands by its weapon, denying that the P320 fires without the trigger being pulled.
Still, the SFPD is taking action.
Next week, 53 officers on the department’s SWAT team, known as TAC, will turn in the last of the department’s troubled P320s, The Standard has learned.
But the officers won’t be given brand-new pistols. Instead, the department will issue a replacement that has been in use for more than two decades: the Sig Sauer P226R. The SFPD has more than 2,000 such pistols in its inventory, some of which have been breaking down in recent years.
Since 2022, the department has retired more than 100 of the older pistols due to cracking slides, according to department records. Additionally, the night sights, which glow in the dark, have mostly stopped working, according to an officer with knowledge of the guns’ problems.
SFPD officials did not respond to a request for comment.
While department leaders did not say if there are plans to replace the old guns, a handful of officers at the airport will be getting new firearms.
Sixty-three officers working at the San Francisco International Airport, which has a contract with the SFPD, will get 9mm Glocks to replace both Sig Sauer pistols.
The department began using the Sig Sauer in 2004, replacing 2,000 Beretta service weapons after nearly a decade of use.
At the time, a department official told the Examiner it had purchased the new guns because “We are always looking for the finest tools to give our officers. ... This is an upgrade.”