Kewanee police officers now can use pistols with a new technology to make aiming faster and more accurate. The police department has made guns with “red dot” sights available to all the officers, and Deputy Chief Stephen Kijanowski said most of the officers have purchased them.
Kijanowski said the department formerly provided guns and holsters to all the officers, but now the officers must buy their own guns. As members of Kewanee’s Fraternal Order of Police local, the officers receive a clothing and equipment allowance each year.
The “red dot” sight doesn’t project the dot onto the target, he said. Instead, a red dot shows up in the front sight, and when that dot can be seen in the rear sight, the gun is on target. He said the system can “improve your time of picking up a sight.”
Officers have the option of buying the gun they’ve been using from the city and continuing to use it on the job, or buying one of the Shadow Systems weapons or another gun that meets the department’s requirements. Shadow Systems offered the city a good price on the guns, Kijanowski said, and gave a demonstration of the red dot system for Kewanee police officers. Some of the officers fired the new guns during the demonstration.
Lt. Bill Rivord, the department’s training officer for firearms, has been “getting the guys acclimated” to the new sights, Kijanowski said. Rivord is retiring soon, the deputy chief said, and two other officers will take classes on being instructors.
Earlier this week, the City Council approved the “disposal” of the city-owned guns formerly used by police officers. Kijanowski said this basically means selling the guns to the officers who had been using them. They can purchase the gun for $200, roughly half the cost of a new one.
