HOUSTON -- Local 2 has learned it is taking longer and costing area police departments more money to buy ammunition.

Higher demand for several types of bullets has raised the price between 10 and 40 percent over the last year

At Hot Wells firing range in Cypress, instructor Donovan Lamar said a typical student goes through 200 to 250 rounds in just one night.

“You have a lot of students trying to figure out where the best deals are,” Lamar said.

Even police departments like Bellaire are not getting a break. It used to receive 6,000 to 8,000 rounds delivered in a day. But, Lt. Michael Leal said that now the department will wait one to four weeks, depending on how large the order is.

“It’s a small effect that we have when our country’s involved in the larger mass. It’s something that trickles down,” said Leal.

Houston police told KPRC Local 2 they’re paying 10 percent more for the same amount of ammunition this year.

Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett Guns & Ammo, said the price increase is not caused by just one thing.

“It’s common sense to understand the demand for ammo by the military. It’s a fact,” said Pruett.

Another employee at Pruett’s shop, Barry Warren, said the increased cost of fuel is also playing a factor.

Leal said its supplier offered to give the Bellaire Police Department a discount if it collected the spent casings from rounds and sent them back, a sign of the shortage of metals like brass, copper and steel.

None of the law enforcement agencies KPRC Local 2 contacted said it could not handle the slow shipments and higher prices. Officials just have to plan ahead and order more ammunition in advance.