By A.C. Thompson

Since San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza was mowed down in April, local cops have been clamoring for more firepower, which they say would help them better combat gangsters and thugs.

As Gary Delagnes, the tough-talking president of the city's police union, told the San Francisco Examiner earlier this month, "cops are feeling like the potential is there for them to be outgunned. It's like having a spitball gun in a gunfight."

In the wake of Espinoza's murder, which was allegedly perpetrated by an assailant armed with the guerrilla warrior's weapon of choice, the AK-47, Delagnes says his members want to be equipped with heavy-duty assault rifles like the AR-15. The gun is the domestic equivalent of the M-16 shouldered by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Aside from about 60 specially trained officers, S.F. cops generally carry .40 caliber handguns. At this point police chief Heather Fong is seriously considering the assault rifle idea, which would require a significant revamping of department policies. "We're looking at other jurisdictions nationwide to see if that's something we want to pursue," she told the Bay Guardian.

If you're a tad worried about the prospect of cops with assault rifles accidentally wasting civilian bystanders as they hunt down bad guys, consider this: a quick review of police records and published news stories shows police officers have actually shot themselves or each other at least six times during the past six years. Luckily all of the "friendly fire" incidents we uncovered were nonfatal – something that might change if cops start blasting each other with battlefield-type artillery.

The incidents range from not so serious (a graze wound) to stupid (the officer who blew a hole in his own hand) to potentially lethal (cops inadvertently plugging other cops at close range). Asked about the snafus, police spokesperson Neville Gittens acknowledged that "friendly fire is always a concern." However, he told us the department conducts rigorous training to minimize accidents.

The first incident occurred in 1998 when an unnamed officer, who was cleaning his gun in the garage of his San Bruno home, forgot about the round in the chamber and shot his own hand. More serious screwups took place later that year during the notorious manhunt for drug dealer Michael Negron. First, police fatally shot Negron's unarmed 17-year-old companion, Sheila Detoy, in a botched raid near Lake Merced. Then they shot each other.

When two men fled a house where police believed Negron was staying, Sgt. Dan Greely opened fire. He missed the fugitives, who were scampering over a fence, but hit Inspector Robert McMillan in the thigh, sending him to the hospital. Greely was later ordered to undergo retraining at the San Francisco Police Department shooting range, according to the department summary of the matter.

A similar mishap went down a year later, with two cops opening fire on a pair of a robbery suspects after a high-speed car chase. Again, the officers missed their targets but connected with a fellow officer, in this case Paul Weggenman, who was hit in the arm.

The cops didn't miss when they pointed their guns at Idriss Stelley, a mentally ill 23-year-old man, in a movie theater at the Sony Metreon in 2001. Ten bullets struck Stelley, who was brandishing a knife, killing him. Often forgotten about the Stelley tragedy is the fact that an officer was also caught in the fusillade, going down with a gunshot to the butt.

More recently, in March 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on an unnamed cop who was tagged in the leg by a ricocheting bullet as officers tried to subdue a surly rottweiler.

Stories like these worry police commissioner Peter Keane. "The idea that they want to turn San Francisco into Fallujah is a very gruesome thought.... You're more likely to kill other officers and civilians in friendly fire situations if you're spraying a banana clip of bullets out of an assault rifle," he told us, adding that assault rifle ammunition is more apt to zing through walls and other barriers. Fellow commissioner Joe Alioto Veronese has also dogged the idea publicly.

The well-being of bystanders is a real issue. Just ask Vilda Curry, the city worker who was inadvertently shot in the gut by cops in 2002 as she was about to walk into a Popeye's chicken joint in the Excelsior. In another case, according to a 2002 police summary, officers unleashed 10 errant shots at a suicidal man waving a 9 mm pistol before finally hitting him with a shotgun blast. And this spring, when police fatally opened up on Cammerin Boyd, bullets ripped into an adjacent Western Addition apartment.

Despite such anecdotes, several law enforcement experts we spoke to back the changeover to assault rifles. "If you call around to different police departments, you'll find a lot of the best departments have gone to rifles," said Ron McCarthy, a police consultant and former Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officer, noting that L.A. and Santa Ana cops are now carrying the arms.

From McCarthy's perspective the military-style weapons vastly lower the risk levels for everyone by allowing cops to fire more accurately from farther away.

Still, the weapons carry an added concern for cops. "A rifle will penetrate a [bullet-resistant Kevlar] vest. The velocity of the normal assault rifle round is 3,100 feet per second. It's 960 feet per second from a .40 caliber handgun," McCarthy explained, noting the carnage, or "wound channel," caused by a .223 caliber rifle round "is more significant than a .40 caliber."

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