{"id":4803,"date":"2026-07-18T11:35:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4803"},"modified":"2026-07-18T11:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:35:48","slug":"an-m4-rifle-was-stolen-from-an-sjpd-assistant-chiefs-suv-what-happens-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4803","title":{"rendered":"An M4 rifle was stolen from an SJPD assistant chief\u2019s SUV. What happens now?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN JOSE \u2014 Investigators were searching Friday for a police-issued M4 rifle stolen this week from a mounted lockbox inside an SUV parked overnight in the driveway of the San Jose Police Department\u2019s second-in-command.<\/p>\n

Read more UCSF shifts specialized children\u2019s care between Oakland and San Francisco, raising travel concerns<\/a><\/p>\n

The customized M4 carbine \u2014 a short-barreled rifle designed for compactness and maneuverability \u2014 remained missing Friday afternoon, three days after Assistant Chief Ali Miri reported the theft.<\/p>\n

Miri discovered Tuesday morning that someone had entered his unmarked, department-issued SUV outside his San Jose home and pried open the lockbox, leaving it \u201cseverely pried and damaged beyond repair,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n

The theft has prompted an internal investigation into whether Miri complied with department policy and renewed scrutiny of the risks posed when law enforcement officers leave firearms in vehicles overnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe San Jose Police Department has made removing illegal firearms from our streets a top priority, so having one of our own guns stolen is devastating,\u201d the agency said in a statement to this news organization. \u201cDetectives and Special Operations personnel are doing everything possible to recover it and apprehend those responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department did not say whether the SUV was locked, whether the rifle was loaded or whether ammunition or magazines also were stolen.<\/p>\n

Why was the rifle left in Miri\u2019s vehicle overnight? <\/h4>\n

Police said command officers are eligible to carry rifles and cited two reasons Miri possessed the weapon.<\/p>\n

Miri is a former officer and current firearms trainer for MERGE, which stands for Mobile Emergency Response Group and Equipment and is essentially SJPD\u2019s equivalent of a SWAT team. Police also said Miri inherited the weapon from his predecessor, Brian Shab, who left the No. 2 post earlier this year to become Watsonville\u2019s police chief. \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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But those explanations address why Miri was authorized to possess the rifle, not why it was stored in his vehicle overnight.<\/p>\n

For Brian Higgins, a former police chief in Bergen, New Jersey, and adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, Miri\u2019s possession of the rifle seemed unusual. Higgins said the primary reason for an executive-level officer to carry a rifle would be an expectation that the officer might respond to an urgent crime scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never heard of a scenario where an officer is authorized to carry a weapon of this type, locked in his car, because he might respond to a training session,\u201d Higgins said. \u201cThe setup that we\u2019re talking about, where it\u2019s in a vehicle in a lockbox, is so that the officer can deploy that weapon at a scene in an emergency quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Dudley, a retired San Francisco Police Department deputy chief who is now a criminal justice lecturer at San Francisco State University, viewed the circumstances differently.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe is authorized to carry the firearm, that he is a former SWAT officer, and that he still does training for SWAT officers,\u201d Dudley said. \u201cSo that doesn\u2019t seem inappropriate to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was Miri targeted?<\/h4>\n

The Police Department did not comment on how the intruder accessed the SUV\u2019s cargo area. Higgins and Dudley said the damage to the lockbox raised the possibility that the thief knew a weapon was stored inside, although police have not said they have evidence that Miri was specifically targeted. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the lockbox being broken into \u2026 it sounds to me, and I\u2019m going to make some speculation here, that somebody probably saw him load the firearm in there at some point, whether at the department or him getting in or out of the vehicle at his home,\u201d Dudley said.<\/p>\n

Higgins said common burglary tools, such as consumer-level screwdrivers, generally would not be sufficient to pry open a police-grade lockbox.<\/p>\n

How commonly are police guns stolen?<\/h4>\n

The disappearance of police-issued firearms, while statistically rare, is not unheard of in California.<\/p>\n

A 2016 Bay Area News Group investigation found that nearly 1,000 law-enforcement guns were unaccounted for, with 20% of those definitively stolen. Most were taken from officers\u2019 vehicles, including locked and unlocked personal and police vehicles, while officers dined out or went shopping.<\/p>\n

The danger drew wider public attention after the 2015 fatal shooting of Kate Steinle at San Francisco\u2019s Pier 14. The gun involved had been stolen from the vehicle of a federal Bureau of Land Management agent. Jurors later determined the shooting was inadvertent.<\/p>\n

Dudley cited that case to underscore the urgency of recovering Miri\u2019s missing rifle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would imagine they\u2019re talking about it at the executive level, at the supervisory level, at every briefing,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone who has confidential informants are asking about where this gun might turn up or who might be bragging about taking it. I\u2019m sure all the video from blocks and blocks around this location are being examined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could Miri face discipline?<\/h4>\n

The department did not rule out disciplinary action against Miri.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time a department-issued firearm is stolen, a thorough investigation is completed to include whether any possible violations of department policy or the law occurred by the employee,\u201d the department said. \u201cThat same investigation will happen in this case. If a violation is found to have occurred, it may result in appropriate discipline as it would with any other police employee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dudley said he doesn\u2019t see grounds for a serious individual punishment for Miri.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see it as a disciplinary issue,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there are some mitigating circumstances there considering the background and training of the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higgins said the potential consequences of failing to recover the weapon outweigh any embarrassment or concern about discipline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe embarrassment I would imagine they\u2019re having right now would be amplified if a crime was committed or somebody was hurt with a department weapon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Will the theft prompt policy changes?<\/h4>\n

Practices now under scrutiny in San Jose have been addressed by other Bay Area law enforcement agencies, particularly after Steinle\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

San Francisco police and the Alameda County Sheriff\u2019s Office, for example, barred their officers and deputies from leaving their firearms in vehicles overnight. The state Legislature followed by passing a law requiring mounted safes in police officers\u2019 vehicles to secure their handguns, after the BANG investigation found a plurality of guns being stolen from locked car trunks.<\/p>\n

SJPD said it would consider its own changes after completing the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon completion of the investigation and review of its findings, the department will implement appropriate changes to department policy, practices or equipment to better safeguard against similar thefts in the future,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

Higgins and Dudley said the department should begin by addressing the circumstances of this week\u2019s theft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that no firearm shall be stored in a vehicle unless the vehicle can be secured within a locked facility, whether it\u2019s in the individual\u2019s garage or at a police facility behind a locked gate,\u201d Dudley said. \u201cAnything secured in a locked vehicle really isn\u2019t that secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Read more Evacuation warning issued as fire burns near Morgan Territory<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investigators were searching Friday for a police-issued M4 rifle stolen this week from a mounted lockbox inside an SUV parked in the driveway of the SJPD assistant chief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAn M4 rifle was stolen from an SJPD assistant chief\u2019s SUV. 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