The Associated Press
Keyser, W.Va. (AP) -- The Mineral County, West Va. Commission has promised to set aside money after July 1 to buy handguns for its sheriff’s deputies.
Mineral County is one of only a handful of West Virginia’s 55 counties that still requires its law enforcement officers to provide their own weapons.
Some of the deputies, according to Deputy Dave Rolls, have also purchased their own handcuffs, leg irons, batons and flashlights.
Commissioners have said they were unaware of the practice until a few weeks ago.
“We didn’t know,” Commissioners Janice LaRue and Cindy Pyles have said.
In a letter dated May 28, County Coordinator Mike Bland informed Deputy Craig Fraley, who serves as president of the Mineral County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, about the commission’s funding plans. Fraley is the only one of the county’s eight deputies who carries a county-issued firearm.
With the total cost of supplying weapons -- handguns, holsters, shotguns and ammunition -- estimated at more than $14,000, the commissioners said they will have to buy the equipment in phases beginning with guns.
Bland said the handguns would probably cost more than $10,500.
The West Virginia State Police will be opening bids for handguns in July, and the county hopes to participate in that purchasing program.
“I would think it would be wise to have the same type of weapons as the State Police anyway,” Bland said.