Sig Sauer's P320 banned by Chicago Police Department and other law enforcement agencies
Since its release in 2014, the Sig Sauer P320 has heavily advertised its modularity features. Its visibility was only bolstered in 2017, when the U.S. Army selected the P320 as its new M17/M18 pistol under the Modular Handgun System competition over complaints from rival Glock. But that's not the only attention the weapon received
Around the same time the Army was embracing the Sig Sauer P320 as its new official sidearm, it began gaining a reputation for controversy, with numerous investigations and lawsuits surrounding it.
Videos posted on the internet showed that the P320 could fire if dropped at a certain angle or was struck on the back of the slide. The handgun was not recalled; however, Sig Sauer offered a voluntary trigger upgrade and implemented changes to P320 production in the future.
Aside from the impact-firing issue, the P320 has also come under legal fire for 'uncommanded discharges,' a very nice way of saying the weapon could fire even if someone hadn't pulled the trigger. Plaintiffs, ranging from law enforcement professionals to experienced civilian owners, allege that their P320 fired without the trigger being pulled, often while the handgun was holstered.
Reports like these can even be found involving the military version of the P320, like the case of a Marine Corps-issued M18 pistol going off in its holster.
In June 2024, a federal jury in Georgia awarded Robert Lang $2.3 million in a lawsuit against Sig Sauer for his P320 shooting him in the thigh as he removed it from its holster. Five months later, a Philadelphia jury awarded an Army veteran $11 million after his personal P320 shot him in the thigh while it was holstered.
Those are just the military-related complaints. Sig Sauer vowed to appeal these rulings and maintains that the P320 is safe and cannot fire without the trigger being pulled. Law enforcement officers have filed similar complaints—and in some cases, personal lawsuits.
Despite Sig's assurances, multiple law enforcement agencies across the country have banned the P320 following incidents of similar uncommanded discharges.
In 2017, after discharge issues with the P320 first surfaced, the Dallas Police Department suspended use of the P320 as a safety precaution. While the standard-issue sidearm for the Dallas PD is the Sig Sauer P226, other handguns, including various models of Glock pistols, are approved for use. The department has not reversed its suspension of the P320 since.
In 2019, Officer Craig Jacklyn of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) experienced an uncommanded discharge of his issued P320 while on patrol. Jacklyn is a Marine Corps veteran who served as a Marksmanship Instructor and spent over two decades with SEPTA as a law enforcement officer.
Shortly after the incident, a SEPTA investigation concluded that there was no cause for the uncommanded discharge, and the agency made an emergency purchase of 350 Glock 17 pistols and holsters to replace the P320.
In 2022, the Milwaukee Police Department announced that it would replace the P320 with the Glock 45 as the department-issued duty weapon. The decision was made following multiple unintended discharges within the department, which prompted the Milwaukee Police Association to file a lawsuit against the city. MPD reported that three officers had been injured since 2020.
In October 2024, the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) imposed a temporary ban on the handgun following an uncommanded discharge by a recruit with an issued P320. Both the recruit and the firearms instructor at the scene affirmed that the trigger was not pulled.
Following a thorough review by the WSCJTC, which involved law enforcement professionals from across the state and representatives from Sig Sauer, the ban became permanent in February 2025.
'My position has to be safety because we know so much now that if I make a different decision, I don't feel like I'm being responsible,' WSCJTC Executive Director Monica Alexander told KING 5 News.
In April 2025, the Denver Police Department notified officers who qualified with the P320 that the weapon is 'No longer considered safe for duty or backup carry.'
The department confirmed that its Firearms Unit evaluated the P320 and was able to recreate safety issues. Interestingly, the department's ban came a month before a YouTube video was posted by LFD Research, which documents their recreation of an issue that allows the P320 to fire without the trigger being pulled. The Denver Police Department has not specified the issue recreated by its Firearms Unit.
Perhaps the most significant ban on the P320 is by the Chicago Police Department, the second-largest police department in the nation.
An affidavit by CPD Range Master Sgt. Wasim M. Said affirms that the department's Firearms Training Section reported possible issues with the P320. Said's investigation into the P320 revealed at least 33 officers injured across 18 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Although Said and the FTS could not replicate a problem on six of CPD's P320s, FTS temporarily suspended the P320 as a Prescribed Duty Weapon on February 28, 2025.
On April 7, 2025, Said's findings were presented to the CPD Arsenal Committee, which voted unanimously to phase out the P320. On April 18, 2025, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police penned a letter to CPD's Superintendent regarding the decision by the Arsenal Committee. The letter notes that Chicago Police Academy recruits had already been notified that the P320 is no longer prescribed for purchase or use and calls for prompt action to mitigate the risk to both police officers and citizens.
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