County keeps safety on DA rifle request
John Driscoll and Chris Durant
05/31/2007 The Times-Standard

Humboldt County's chief administrative officer won't approve the purchase of assault rifles requested by the district attorney's office at least until a dusty use of force policy and training protocols are updated.

Loretta Nickolaus said she was satisfied that those policies are being updated after meeting Wednesday with District Attorney Paul Gallegos, his Chief Investigator Mike Hislop, Assistant District Attorney Wes Keat, Assistant County Counsel Wendy Chaitin and Risk Manager Kim Kerr.

Nickolaus said, for now, she won't allow the district attorney's office to buy the eight AR-15 rifles Gallegos is seeking, citing concerns that the county could be held liable if there was an incident involving the guns before the protocols were modernized.

”It's on hold,” Nickolaus said. “Let's see what they come up with.”

Hislop said the meeting was positive and he provided a training syllabus and a draft of the district attorney's office updated use of force policy.

”I answered all their questions,” Hislop said.

After the meeting Wednesday, Hislop delivered a copy of the district attorney's use of force policy to the Times-Standard. The paper had asked Gallegos for the policy through a California Public Records Act request on May 18, after Gallegos said the document was not public and refused to turn over a copy.

Gallegos said in an e-mail that he forwarded the request to Hislop, who was on vacation last week.

Hislop said he receive the paper's request on his Blackberry on the way back from Baja California. Hislop said he had already finished working on the policy before the Times-Standard requested it, and has since given it to county counsel for analysis.

”This is still under review,” Hislop said.

The policy Hislop provided is more limited in scope than those of the county Sheriff's Department and the Eureka Police Department, which are nearly identical to each other. It appears to be more specifically geared toward using firearms for defensive purposes, and does not address more police-related activities of less-than-deadly force or pain compliance techniques that might be used during arrests.

The district attorney's training protocol previously called for district attorney investigators to qualify with their firearms once a year, Hislop said, while he plans to increase that training to four times per year -- a provision now contained in the use of force policy.

District attorney investigators have not discharged a firearm in the course of duty for at least four years, Nickolaus said, if not longer.

She said she's convinced that the DA investigators -- several of which recently came from police or sheriff's departments -- want the assault rifles for defensive purposes.

”They feel like they're not safe unless they have those rifles,” she said.

But while the policy is being revised, Nickolaus said she wouldn't approve their purchase, and voiced concern that the county, or even her as the purchasing agent, could be held liable if they were approved before the use of force policy was updated.