The Covington Police Department will get new service weapons, both for primary use and backup weapons, after a unanimous vote by the Covington City Council Monday.

After talking with Covington Police Chief Stacey Cotton concerning the age of his department’s handguns, Councilman Keith Dalton requested that purchase of weapons for the police department be added to the agenda.

Dalton told the council that “the current climate of what’s going on in our country, and the day-to-day needs,” coupled with police department’s weapons being 7-8 years old caused need for the purchase.

The total cost of all the weapons is $37,000, including trade-ins of existing weapons.

Additional weapons were not included for the police department during July’s budgeting process. So City Manager Leigh Anne Knight requested that the police department’s budget be increased by $37,000.

Knight opted to increase the police department’s budget rather than just absorb the $37,000.

“Because we’re only three months complete into the budget year, I do not feel comfortable absorbing that into their budget,” Knight said.

During the budgeting process the city had $226,000 in contingency funds, which will now be decreased by the $37,000 that will be shifted to the police department.

“We’ll have enough primary and backup weapons for all our sworn officers,” Cotton said.