Indianapolis police stop selling used guns after CBS News investigation

Candace Leslie says she will never get over the shooting death of her son, Cameron Brown.

But Leslie says the fact that Cameron’s story came to light and sparked changes in her city’s police force means his death at least made a difference.

In fact, in response to a CBS News investigation, Indianapolis Police Chief Christopher Bailey issued an administrative order instructing his staff to stop selling official-issued weapons.

“It gives me a little hope that our voices are being heard as far as the people affected by police decisions are concerned,” Leslie said.

Decisions that resulted in more than 52,500 officers’ used service weapons later seized in connection with a crime somewhere in America over a period of 16 years, according to an investigation by CBS News together with the independent news editors The Trace and Reveal of the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The team Obtaining data on weapon traces in crimes from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives showing that between 2006 and February 2022, 52,529 former police weapons were later linked to a crime somewhere in the United States. That’s 3,245 different former police weapons found in connection with crimes each year, or an average of nine per day.

CBS News was able to trace one of those used police weapons, a Glock pistol that was once the weapon of a sheriff’s deputy in California, back to Indianapolis two years after the department traded the weapon for new police weapons as part of a swap with a gun dealer. Records tracked by CBS News show the California sheriff’s deputy’s used weapon was linked to Cameron Brown’s death.

Cameron’s grandmother Maria says the story of his death and the police weapon used calls for change.

“The attention that CBS News has brought to your work is so important,” said Maria Leslie. “His picture and his story are being heard across the country. And our law enforcement agencies are rethinking how they dispose of their weapons. And that means a lot.”

Indianapolis Community Leader Reverend Charles Harrison welcomed the police department’s decision to stop gun sales and said he would meet with the mayor and other city leaders to urge them to make Police Chief Bailey’s order official city policy.

“We have a meeting scheduled with the mayor soon,” Harrison said. “We’re going to make our voice heard and try to get Mayor (Joe) Hogsett on board. And also Vop Osili, the president of the city and county council. So we’re going to do our part to help Chief Bailey make sure that the city supports his decision as police chief to stop selling old police weapons.”

Indianapolis is not the only police department changing its policies.

After learning of CBS News’ findings, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara issued an administrative order stating that from now on, the department’s policy would be “not to sell any firearms in department possession.”

“I don’t want to sell a firearm back to a gun shop with an FFL (Federal Firearms License),” O’Hara said. “I don’t want us to end up in a situation where a gun that was once used by the police is now used in a crime.”

CBS News has learned that several other agencies and local leaders from California to Colorado are also considering changing their policies regarding the sale or trade of their old, used police service weapons.