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http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... 09gun.html

Just heard this on the news tonight. Did a Google search and found several hits.
Big mistake by one of Austin's policeman. Found by a mom and kids. Curious how this comes out, some people will want his hide, others look at it as a simple mistake- no harm no foul. The tricky part is that he didn't even know it was missing from his holster.

O6nop wrote:http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... 09gun.html

Just heard this on the news tonight. Did a Google search and found several hits.
Big mistake by one of Austin's policeman. Found by a mom and kids. Curious how this comes out, some people will want his hide, others look at it as a simple mistake- no harm no foul. The tricky part is that he didn't even know it was missing from his holster.

The bovine, grass-eating masses will be scared for a while. But, they will forget about it as soon as the next celebrity scandal is broadcast. Professional gunmen and competent shooters won't go so easy on him.

I wear a gun for at least 16hrs a day and I honestly feel “naked� without one. As such, I find it extremely difficult to excuse this officer for misplacing a critical piece of equipment and supposedly not realizing it was missing for several hours. I'd be more forgiving if I’d heard the gun was lost during vigorous training with his dog and was subsequently found by passers by while the officer was still searching for it..

It can happen I lost a loaded 4" 686 in 1984,after looking all over I remembered I booked a prisoner into jail and forgot to get it out of the lockbox when I left.Not a real good feeling realising I had been unarmed for a couple hours

Considering the amount of gear these officers carry on their belt, I can understand that the officer did not notice that the weapon was missing. I'll bet he had a rush of adrenaline and felt a little flushed when he realized the pistol was missing when it was returned to him.

I wonder what kind of reprimand he will receive from his commander.

"He said the incident raises questions about the type of equipment they use." - I'm sure they will take a look at this.

This bothers me more than the cop losing the gun --

one of the mothers moved the gun from the slide and propped it between a couple of tree branches out of the reach of children. Several of them guarded the weapon until officers arrived

A fine example of safe gun handling for the children to witness. This is Texas, not New Jersey, we are not suppose to panic at the sight of a gun.

thankGod wrote:"He said the incident raises questions about the type of equipment they use." - I'm sure they will take a look at this.

I understand that he was out there training his partner (the dog) and that he might not have been wearing full duty gear. So it could be an issue with a concealment holster (or lack of one) rather than his duty gear. We don't know yet.

Im all for no harm no foul but what would happen if this were one of us? We could end up with law suits or losing our CHL. I am in no way trying to start a LEO bashing session but I dont like the fact that PD's play by a different set of rules in situations like this. I guess we will have to see how it plays out and hopefully that will be in a just way.

Houston1944 wrote:This bothers me more than the cop losing the gun --

one of the mothers moved the gun from the slide and propped it between a couple of tree branches out of the reach of children. Several of them guarded the weapon until officers arrived

A fine example of safe gun handling for the children to witness. This is Texas, not New Jersey, we are not suppose to panic at the sight of a gun.

It's Austin after all, the most California like city in the state.

And they have suspended the use of a specific type of K9 officer holster... no clue about specifics on the model yet.

maybe he needed some of that "wall to wall" counseling...

I am glad, however, that the big mean gun didn't jump up and bite anyone....

RiveraRa wrote:Im all for no harm no foul but what would happen if this were one of us? We could end up with law suits or losing our CHL. I am in no way trying to start a LEO bashing session but I dont like the fact that PD's play by a different set of rules in situations like this. I guess we will have to see how it plays out and hopefully that will be in a just way.

Well, there is no way to sue you for it if it ever does happen to you. There has to be a harm to someone for them to sue. I don't think your CHL can be suspended for a civil event like this, but I have to admit I am not positive on that. I would think it would take a criminal conviction to suspend.

But I can guarantee something will happen to the officer. With Chief Acevedo, I am guessing he is looking at a 15 day suspension. From what I have seen, Acevedo does not give minor suspensions, they tend to be long ones. And, with him being from California, you can bet he sees this as a serious problem.

In other departments, I would say 3 to 7 days off. Without more info on the exact circumstances of how it came out of his holster, I can't say which is fair.