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Cops still searching for own guns

A commander has been replaced, while an internal audit of the Police Department’s firearms inventory continues.

POLICE Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey yesterday replaced the head of the department's firearms-training unit.

Capt. Mark Fisher, who had overseen the unit - which is based at the Police Academy - was transferred to offender processing and replaced by Capt. Charles Green, who had previously worked in Internal Affairs, Ramsey said last night.

The command switch comes four months after the commissioner asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate after a regularly scheduled audit of 1,356 Colt M-16 rifles in a vault at the academy revealed that one of the weapons was missing.

At that time, Ramsey said all of the guns had been accounted for during an audit in December.

Records for the department's firearms are maintained manually, he said, so accounting for all of the weapons can be a long, painstaking task.

"Right now, we have 12 guns that we still need to locate, but we have more than 100 officers that we've not yet checked with," Ramsey said.

"It's too soon to say we can't locate [the firearms]. We have some officers who are out on IOD [injured on duty] status, and others that are detailed to other units.

"We also have retired officers that we need to check with, to see whether they might have purchased their weapons when they retired," he said.

The command switch was not directly linked to any concerns about the ongoing audit, Ramsey said.

"I'm just trying to make a few moves, here and there," Ramsey said. "It's no reflection on [Fisher's] ability. He's a fine leader and a good man."