Expand Violently on Impact Dumdum Slugs Used By Some Area Police ByPhiwnshirm L,ptstR: A. N: oZstas IV Police in Prince George's, endangering innocent by- Montgomery and Fairfax slanders. counties, joining a growing The U.S. armed services national trend, are carrying do not use expanding bullets flat-nosed bullets that many because a 1907 Hague con- authorities call "dumdums" vention, to which the U.S. is because they expand vio- a party, outlawed bullets lently inside human or ani- "calculated to cause unnec- mal targets they hit. essary suffering," according These flat or hollow- to the U.S. State Depart- tipped bullets differ from ment Office of Treaty Af- the round-tipped .38-caliber fairs. slugs that have been the Rachel Hurley, a foreign standard police cartridge In affairs officer there, said the U.S: since the beginning the unnecessary suffering of the century. The "dum- clause "has been interpreted dums" rip wider wound to include . .. dumdum bul- channels through flesh, lets." sometimes shattering into Instead the tips of U.S. many pieces and tending to military bullets are pointed stop inside bodies rather rounded and the softlead is than going through cleanly, covered by a hard metal according to weapons ex- perts. jacket that tends to keep the bullets intact when it The suburban Washington hits a target. police who use them say Lt. Charles Federline they like their increased of the Montgomery County po- stopping power, greater lice department said, "There penetration of car doors and was an alarming increase of other shields used by crimi- people who were shot with nals and their tendency not to riccochet off pavement, See BULLETS, A10, Col. 1 - flat-tipped dumdum tor BULLETS, From Al three ears and the depart- ment's officers are enthu- those things (thy old stand- siastic about it. ard police slugs), continuing "Basically we were look- their assaults on people." ing at the ricochet effect," . Montgomery switched to said Deputy Chief John siumdunis with hollowed tips Rhoads. He said he knew of in 1966, said Federline- one instance of a 'municipal . though he did not use the policeman in the county— term dumdum, which police not a member of his county and others tend to shy away force—shooting at a crimi- from as an emotionally nal only to have the old loaded word. round-nosed bullet miss, ri- Dumdum is popularly ap- cochet and hit a nearby plied to any bullet that ex- woman. pands or "mushrooms" in- Rhoads also said the dum- dums were reputed to have side its target rather than President.' tending to remain a small, greater stopping power and 'intact pellet of lead, accord- while there had been no At that tmie, he estimated ing to David Petzal, a fire- problems in the county with that 300 police departments 'arms expert and the manag- wounded criminals continu- across the nation had ing editor of Field and ing to charge and fight— moved to hollowpoint dum- Stream magazine. there might be. Although dum bullets. William Van- derpool, a firearms consul- The word originally de- the dumdums cost more, Prince George's decided to tant to the International As- rives from a town near Cal- sociation of Chiefs of Police cutta, India, where flat- use them. "It's like a varmint load," (TACP) estimated last week tipped or notched cartridges that about 900 police depart- first were made in the last said the department's armo- rer, Sgt. Carlisle Peterson, ments now use dumdums. century, and became noto- But not all policemen are rious for the gaping wounds of the bullet. "It's a bullet that goes fast—when it goes enthusiastic about dum- they caused. dums. Police in Arlington Montgomery County po- there it totally destroys the animals." and Alexandria as well as lice switched to a new brand Maryland and Virginia state of hollow-point two weeks There have been no com- plaints about the bullet in police, continue to use the ago for greater accuracy, ac- old bullets. cording to Federline. the county, according to Jo- seph M. Parker, chairman of So does Washington's po- As elsewhere in the Wash- lice force—a force that has ington area, there has been been in the national spot- little controversy in Mont- light since the Nixon admin- gomery over the dumdums. the county human relations istration declared a war on "Our guidelines are such commission. crime and began increasing that when an officer pulls the number of police here. Fairfax County police offi- "The citizens themselves, his gun, he's shooting to cials cited similar reasons kill," said Federline. "So it's anything with a hollow for switching to flat tipped point, they call it a dum- pretty irrelevant how bad dumdums, a move they the wound is." dum," said Det. Sgt. George made about a year ago. The R. Wilson, a ballistics expert Like other police in this U.S. Secret Service, U.S. on the Washington force. area who use dumdums, Park Police and the Execu- "We would go to nothing Federline said the Montgom- tive Protective Service use with a hollow point, just be- ery police simply don't do hollow-point dumdums. Dep- cause of the reaction." enough shooting to actually uty Treasury Secretary Eu- Wilson, no relation to know whether the bullets gene T. Rossides defended Chief Jerry V. Wilson, said have been useful or not. the use of these bullets the department wants to There is one known case early in 1970 in a letter to a maintain a "low profile" and in Montgomery of a person person who had complain being wounded by one of about the type of wounds the new police bullets—a po- they cause. liceman himself. In June, "All ammunition, domes- patrolman John J. Louthan tic or imported, which is was shot in the hip with a used for taking game is of .38-caliber, high velocity, the expanding bullet vari- hollow-point dumdum. The ety," he wrote. "This is so bullet "shattered his hip for humanitarian reasons" socket and fragments (of the because "BO per cent of the bullet) lodged in the base of time" an animal hit with a his spine," Federline re- nonexpanding bullet "would counted. the shot was fired by another policeman who be capable of fleeing out of was engaged in "horseplay," effective tracking range." Federline said. Citing the "immediate" Louthan spent a number stopping power of dum- of weeks in the hospital and dums, Rossides wrote, "De- now has returned 'to limited nying the use of the supe- duty. rior ammunition to the Se- Prince George's has used a cret Service would lessen the protection aortic(' the ... B7 Ken Fell—The WashInstan Past Comparison of police ballets, from left; city bullets used in New York City; flat- standard .38 long used by most depart• tipped hollow•point, Montgomery County; ments; the "semi-wadcutter,"' a low-velo- flat-tipped .38, Prince George's. that any move to dtundums Officials would not re- would not help. lease the detailed report, Detective Wilson con- but Wilson said the results ducted ballistics tests on dif- were standard: the dum- ferent types of bullets this dums flattened out or ex- summer when the depart- panded inside the gelatin ment was considering lumps, sometimes going to whether to switch bullets. pieces and generally doing Using high-speed camera worse damage than standard equipment and firing bullets bullets. Also, as expected, into big lumps of gelatin, the dumdums tended to stay Wilson and his men were inside the blocks rather able to analyze the proper- than go through. The gelatin ties of the different kinds of has some of the consistency bullets. Cost: $26 per round of flesh and ballistics ex- fired. perts customarily use the substance to conduct such IACP police weapons center keting high velocity, flat tests. cerning so-called 'legal am- in Gaithersburg, said the and hollow-tipped expanding munition,' it should be em- Asked 'about the alleged semiwadcutter undergoes a bullets that police depart- advantages of the dumdums, "mild expansion" inside ments could use in their .38 phasized that Geneva Con- Wilson countered that if a bodies, mild enough to ena- special revolvers, the stand- vention rulings do not apply policeman misses a criminal ble New York to "avoid all ard police weapon. to police departments." with a dumdum, "there's al- the emotional criticisms that Super Vel beat the major "It was The Hague con- ways somebody behind him, tend to accompany" the high munitions manufacturers vention," said Wallet'. "We some old lady crossing the velocity dumdums. into the growing market for never signed The Hague street with her kid." The high velocity bullets this kind of shell. Winches- convention." "The bullet we have does used in the Washington sub- ter and Remington and the Wallien said he could not the job," said Lt. George R. urbs have a muzzle speed of other big makers now are reveal the numbers of Long, a firearms expert with about 1,200 feet per second, marketing similar kinds of rounds that Super Vel sells, the Washington department. as opposed to 800 for regu- ammunition. Prince George's but that the company has He said that with dum- lar bullets. police used the Super Vel been successful. dums, "You almost always Both the dumdums and hollow-point shells. "We tried to develop a have a fatality because of standard bullets are .38-cali- Super Vel promoted the round to give the officer a the expansion rate and the ber and fly straight through new bullets in gun, sports sbetter break," he said.