AUSTIN — In March, Texas Highway Patrol Sgt. Cade Liverman bought his service weapon, a Bushmaster M4 assault rifle, from the state for his personal use. The price: $650.

A few months later the same rifle showed up for sale with a $1,500 list price in an online forum that facilitates gun sales between strangers, which don’t always require a background check.

“Issued to one TX State Trooper and used lightly,” the ad said. “Great condition.” A close-up photo showed a Texas Department of Public Safety tag number engraved in the gun, certifying its authenticity as a police weapon once used to protect the public.

The firearm is one of over 5,200 the department has sold its employees over the past three years, often at a price below the market rate. With few restrictions on the sales, more than 60 officers have taken home at least four guns each, ranging from 9mm pistols to high-powered rifles equipped with accessories worth thousands of dollars.

It’s common practice for police departments nationwide to let retiring officers buy their service weapon as a kind of memento. But experts on guns and law enforcement say the DPS policy differs from those of other departments by letting current and ougoing officers buy so much firepower.

More Information Texas Department of Public Safety gun sales: 5,254 since Sept. 2016 - Over 2,000 Sig Sauer P226 pistols at a price of $350 each. - Over 1,000 Bushmaster M4 rifles at prices from $401 - 601.

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While many police departments sell just one gun to a retiring officer, for example - which Texas law allows — records show the public safety agency lets retirees buy three.

The agency sets no restrictions on what officers can do with the weapons after they take them home. At least two DPS-issued rifles popped up for sale in online gun forums recently, prompting words of warning.

“Putting this kind of gun out to the public, you are playing with fire,” said Jay Wachtel, a retired ATF agent and former lecturer California State University, Fullerton. “At least in a store, they will take the name and go through the motions of a background check.”

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The sheer volume of guns DPS is selling its officers — instead of auctioning or trading them to a licensed firearm dealer — also raises questions about whether the state is getting the best financial deal.

“You have eliminated anybody else paying more for this firearm by limiting it only to the police officers,” said Brian Higgins, adjunct faculty at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and a former police chief in New Jersey. “Could you do better for the taxpayer?”

In response to questions, the agency said it prefers to sell weapons to its own employees rather than at auction, where it has no control over the buyer. Proceeds generated from the sales are then used to buy more guns, offsetting their cost, the department said in a statement.

“DPS has a measured policy that both rewards an active officer or an honorably retiring officer for their service with the ability to purchase their issued firearm or a retired firearm,” spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said in a statement. “It ensures that the agency’s retired firearms are initially transferred to a known, responsible individual.”

Liverman didn’t respond to several emails. It’s not clear who is behind the for-sale post, which was taken down after Hearst Newspapers inquired about it.

Amid a string of mass shootings in recent years, law enforcement agencies across the county have grappled with how to dispose of firearms once they have been taken out of service after years of wear or when they upgrade to a new model. Reselling the weapons may save taxpayer dollars, but it also puts more guns on the street.

The Honolulu Police Department faced criticism in 2015 when it destroyed retired guns that were worth over $500,000, instead of selling them. At the request of the city council, the Austin Police Department announced last year it would no longer sell its retired guns, and instead destroy those that are not purchased by officers.

Many law enforcement agencies trade or sell old weapons to federally licensed dealers, who run background checks before releasing the weapons to the public, experts said. Still, a 2018 analysis by the Associated Press found more than a dozen forfeited weapons sold by Washington state police agencies later turned up in criminal investigations.

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The Texas Department of Public Safety offers employees several opportunities to buy firearms that have been issued to them, including pistols, rifles and shotguns. While Texas state law allows outgoing police officers to buy a single service weapon, DPS lets its retiring troopers purchase up to three.

The two extras, the department said, are guns that it retires from service and sells. There is no limit on how many of those retired weapons an officer can buy thoughout his or her career.

Hundreds of DPS employees — from state troopers to the top brass — have taken advantage, agency records show.

Officers have bought over 2,000 retired Sig Sauer P226 pistols — the department’s most-often purchased weapon since 2016. A major in the Texas Rangers bought four of them in one year, records show.

Before retiring in 2018, former deputy director Robert J. Bodisch, bought five guns, records show, including a Bushmaster M4 and several pistols. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Department said the volume of sales is high because it has switched gun models in recent years, prompting a wave of weapon retirements. The agency, however, didn’t provide a list of those retirements or answer questions about how much it spends on guns each year. Hearst Newspaper has requested the records via the Texas Public Information Act, but they are not yet available.

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Rep. Phil King, a former police officer who used to chair the Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee in the Texas House, said he has no problem with officers buying their service weapons and said the number of sales isn’t that large considering the department has 4,200 commissioned officers. He would expect the guns to be sold at a fair price, he said.

“The pricing needs to be commensurate with if it were in an auction sale,” said King, R-Weatherford. “We don’t want the agency to lose any money in this.”

In some cases, however, the weapons are seemingly priced well below market value or even below what the department could earn in a trade.

When the department initiated a trade with Sig Sauer this year, turning over 41 new P320 pistols for another model, the guns were valued at $341.66 each, according to a DPS purchase order. Officers can buy the same gun from the department for $295, and almost 200 have, records show.

The LaRue Optimized Battle Rifle, used along the U.S.-Mexico border by the department's officers, retails for over $3,300 new. But six retiring officers bought one each from the department for $1,500, before the department bumped up the price last year.

DPS didn’t answer questions about specific prices. But its policy says the cost employees pay can’t exceed the gun’s fair market value. If the department’s asset management office can’t determine an appropriate price based on a commercial firearm valuation guide, then the cost is set at the lowest retail price for that weapon from a market survey of at least three used gun dealers, according to policy.

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Howard Williams stopped letting retirees buy their service weapons when he was chief of the San Marcos police because it didn’t make financial sense, he said.

“I wasn’t going to let someone take a good, serviceable weapon that I was then going to have to turn around and replace,” said Williams, who now lectures at the Texas State University school of criminal justice. “I had no problem with the officer having the gun.”

The Texas State Troopers Association said it has no position on the sale of department-issued guns to officers. Once the weapon is sold, officers are responsible “for ensuring they follow state and federal law with any transfer of those firearms,” the department said.

Though background checks aren’t required for guns sales between strangers, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott highlighted the issue after a round table on gun violence this week.

“One stranger can sell a gun to another stranger,” he said. “Right now, there is nothing in law that would prevent one stranger from selling a gun to a terrorist and obviously that’s a danger that needs to be looked into.”

amorris@express-news.net