Many police agencies already carry M-16s or equivalent kinds of weapons but they are usually reserved for SWAT teams.

CNN: Result of being outgunned in February shootout

In direct response to the North Hollywood shootout, Los Angeles police have acquired 600 M-16s -- U.S. Army surplus weapons donated by the Pentagon.

CNN: Result of being outgunned in February shootout

"It really does need to go to a new level -- these conversations where I'm asking my police chief (to) help me with what we need to understand going into a situation that could turn as bad as Gwinnett County and New York, " said Schwartz, who's also chief of the Arlington County, Virginia, Fire Department.

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"I'm still not totally convinced our police force is at the level of stabilization to handle" around-the-clock security, he said.

CNN: New Orleans mayor gets an earful

And police officers are - you know, at least most of the ones that I'm familiar with, well-trained officers, are used to getting some abuse from the public and sometimes in unexpected quarters or at inappropriate times and are trained to not rise to the bait.

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Police spotted the stolen taxi going south on I-95 around 8:15 a.m.

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Coalition commanders have tightened procedures for tracking the weapons, including using biometric data from Iraqi soldiers and police -- and since June, Iraqi units have been issued U.S.-made M-16 and M-4 rifles, which are electronically tracked, the official said.

CNN: Report: Pentagon lost almost 200,000 weapons in Iraq