State grant will cover the cost.
The Plant City Police Department (PCPD) adopted the Sig Sauer P320 Pro as their issued duty firearm in February 2023. That is the duty pistol officers currently carry. At the November 10 Regular Meeting of the City Commission, Chief Mills stood to speak on resolutions 25-522 and 25-523, to transition from the current pistol. “We have been working on the evaluation since July,” Chief Richard Mills said. “PCPD conducted a comprehensive internal evaluation of available law enforcement duty pistol platforms, which resulted in the department’s decision to transition from the current Sig Sauer P320 platform to the Walther PDP Pro 9mm as the new standard duty pistol.”
Along with pistols, accessories are needed, including 120 Acro P2 Red Dot sights, 120 rail-mounted tactical lights, 120 holsters, and 69,500 rounds of transition training ammunition. “The Plant City Police Department then applied for, and was awarded, $165,003 in grant funding from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Criminal Justice Grants (FDLE CJG) program to fully fund this transition,” Chief Mills added. “The initial funding will come from the Police Department’s fiscal year 2026 budget. The city will receive full reimbursement upon the completion of the FDLE CJG award agreement requirements.”
“Thank you Chief Mills,” City Commissioner Mary Mathis said. “I love it when you come to these meetings, because you say, ‘Grant.’” The City Commission voted 5-0 to accept the grant and approve the purchase. The pistols and the supplies will be bought from Dana Safety Supply, Inc., under a Bradford County Sheriff’s Office contract.
Why make the change? “A host of reasons,” City Manager Bill McDaniel said. “We have the opportunity to update and go with a more compatible platform. When you are trying to equip 90 police officers, you have 90 people of varying skill levels. You have people of varying hand sizes, grip strengths, and everything else. You are looking for a tool that meets the needs of that wide spectrum. They tested several pistols across the spectrum of their end users. They found this one to be the most compatible across that entire spectrum. I have a hand size that will work very well with a particular grip, and so forth, but maybe your hands are smaller, or your hands are larger. So, all of that factors into it. You also want something that meets all of your requirements for reliability and usability. You want the officers to be able to train with it. The opportunity presented itself since there was a grant available that would allow us to do this and have it fully funded. So, to make the switch is not something that is hitting the Plant City taxpayer directly. We’re very thankful for the available grant funding that we were able to secure. Chief Mills and his personnel did an outstanding job at pursuing that opportunity.”
“When the new ones arrive, what are you going to do with the old ones?” Commissioner Bill Dodson asked during the City Commission meeting,
“It is going to be a tiered approach to that,” Chief Mills responded. “What we will do is hold them back until everyone has successfully transitioned to our new platforms. Once everybody has successfully transitioned and everybody is on the same page, we are going to sell them back to an authorized dealer, and then those funds will come back to our general fund.”
“Following a thorough evaluation by our Firearms Training Cadre, the Walther PDP Pro offered the best combination of safety, reliability, and performance for our officers, directly improving readiness and service to our community,” Chief Mills commented. “This upgrade equips our personnel with a safer, more effective platform.”
In those terrible circumstances when officers need to shoot, having the best, most accurate pistol is crucial to the safety and security of residents of Plant City, and is worth every bit of time and effort put into making this decision.
