LEO use of Glocks

[sturmruger]

From what I am understanding Glock will make more then $100 from the sale of the New firearms. They are most likely taking the old PD guns in on trade, and will turn around and sell them to CDNN for $225 a piece or another such discount retailer. Sounds like good marketing to me.

 

[dairycreek]

I have a number of police administrators who are personal friends

To a person they all say that gun preference makes very, very little difference in selecting a department pistol. Low price on the departmental bid is absolutely everything when it comes to making the final choice. Glock is the king of the low bid in our area and because of severe departmental budget restraints that is the absolute bottom line Good shooting

 

[Dbl0Kevin]

The only company I've seen that's been able to outbid Glock is Ruger. Which is the reason Camden City PD carries the P95.....I think they get em for about 70 bucks a gun. What an insult....work in one of the most dangerous cities in the nation and here's a brick for a sidearm.

 

[SouthpawShootr]

Everything in these departments is about budget. But there are exceptions. The local PD used to use Beretta 92s. Price was somewhere around $250 per gun. Lots of PDs around here use Glocks now. Most Sheriff's offices switched to Glocks a long time ago. The local PD I mentioned above recently got new guns. If it were totally up to the brass, I'm sure they would have gone with the very cheapest gun they could get their hands on (officers from this department are involved in maybe 2-3 on-duty shootings per year out of about 200,000 calls per year - I'm sure the brass was thinking with such a safe citiy why spend the money on nice guns). Well, this is where you see the influence of FOP. Got to keep the officers happy. From what I've been able to gather, a panel was assembled to choose the new gun and decide whether to switch to .40s or stick with 9. First order of business was the decision to switch to .40. Eventually, the USP Compact in .40 was chosen and approved - for over 400 sworn (read: armed) officers. Never did find out how much these cost the department, but you can bet that Glock outbid H&K. I'll find out if a LEO friend of mine knows. It was a simple matter to get around the rquirement that you take the lowest bid - just tailor your specs so that the USP was just about the only gun possible (a good example of this was the FBI HRT contract a few years back). I was really amazed at what this department was able to get top of the line triple retention holsters & a very nice gun by anybody's standards. All in a city where it's increasingly difficult to get basic services and every year there is a big budget fight in the city council. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the PD, I think they do an exceptional job and need top quality weapons - I'm awed by their ability to pull this one off with the bean counters. The city's safe, by anybody's standards, the officers are generally pretty good guys, and they don't take forever to respond to important calls - I wouldn't change a thing in this area. Some other city services could be improved, though. This city was the very last major PD in the area to switch over from revolvers (S&W 66s, IIRC) sometime in the late 1980's and those Berettas were getting real rough.

 

[Mark G.]

How many Glocks are sold to the public for $400 a crack? Maybe that is how they can afford to sell to the PD for $100.

 

[Coronach]

Also, consider:

Glock is looking to make money. If you're the VP in charge of Police Department Sales, how are you going to maximize your cashflow? Do you:

A. Charge the PDs $400 per gun in the initial batch, just like you would civilian sales.

B. Charge under your cost for the initial batch, deliberately underbidding everyone else, in order to get the PD using glocks, so that when time comes to buy more for the recruits, you can present them with the choice of going through the whole re-arming process with a different manufacturer, or just paying the new (read: higher) price-per-unit you want to quote them for a smaller run of pistols.

Hint: Option A means that the PD might well go with someone else, thus getting you $0. Option B means you take a bath on the initial batch, but can make up the money over the long haul in repeat sales and service charges.

Hmmm.


Hmm hmmm hmmm.

Mike

 

[TheFederalistWeasel]

Glocks are cheap, we carried the Glock 22 because of price.

Our Chief said if he had the money we’d all be carrying Sig 229’s or HK USP’s.

 

[isp2605]

Hint: Option A means that the PD might well go with someone else, thus getting you $0. Option B means you take a bath on the initial batch, but can make up the money over the long haul in repeat sales and service charges.

You missed the major reason for low balling the price to PDs. It's not that they can up the price for additional PD guns because they don't. The reason is the non-LE sales go up when the local PD is carrying whatever gun. If Podunk PD is carrying Gun A, those in the community interested in buying a self defense gun will take long consideration of what their PD is carrying. Just a known marketing ploy. SIG did it trying to get their 357 round to catch on. When they introduced the 357 SIG round it was about as popular and accepted as the .45 GAP. Then SIG began giving away their guns to certain PDs and used that as their marketing tool. Chevy also used the same tactic in 1991 when they came out with the new body style. It was a real sleeper. The public just did not accept the rounded humped beast. So Chevy cut a real deal to LEAs and other businesses with fleets. They believed if they got enough of their new design out there the public would eventually accept the radical design change and begin buying their car. It worked to a degree.

 

[Coronach]

Actually, I know they do this. Or, I should say, I know that some manufacturers (not necessarily Glock) do this.

PDs will contract with manufacturers for a number of years and/or number of guns. Once that contract expires, the PD might be charged the same rate for another order of new guns, or they might not...depending on the economy, the size of the order, changes in manufacturing (does the company still make the gun in question?), etc etc etc. If the cost per unit was profitable for the manufacturer, they might quote the same price. Or, like my department (non-Glock), they might be quoted something much higher.

Regardless of the amount and reason why, once the PD is presented with the new price, they have two choices:

A. Pay it.

B. Buy somewhere else, with all of the additional costs and problems that entails (like either dealing with two different models of sidearm in your armory, or re-gunning the whole department).

There are, of course, other manners of wheeling and dealing going on in there, too. Gun trades (Send us your busted oldness, we'll send you our new sweetness, one for one), offers to provide free holsters, magazine deals, ammo deals, customer service deals, etc etc etc. But the bottom line is that once a manufacturer has a PD as a client, they know that it is often a real PITA and expense for them to switch to another vendor. I'm NOT saying that they gouge the prices (because that would be bad press, and bad press hurts sales), but they will often not give as sweet a deal for follow-on orders as they did to get their foot in the door.

Mike

 

[Morgan]

I think I'm with the largest department in the nation (about 1400 sworn) that allows a choice of many pistols - but each Officer buys their own. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Even so, I'd say about a third, maybe more, carry Glocks. Not my favorite, but they are good, reliable (mostly) pistols, that tolerate abuse and neglect well. Probably the best choice for non-gunny types, and many aficionados do very well with them.

What I'm trying to say is that Glock didn't get popular on LE lowball pricing alone.

 

[Bravo11]

Morgan,
Are you given any weapon allowance or is it all on you? What are your choices of weapons?

 

[Morgan]

We're given an "equipment allowance" of about $500 per year. This is for holsters, guns, magazines, gear bags, flashlights, boots/shoes, writing utensils - everything but uniforms.

I don't have the list, but from memory we're allowed Heckler & Koch (USP full, compact, or P7), Glock, SIG classic line, Beretta, Colt series 80, Springfield XD/HS2000, Para-Ordinance, Kimber, Kahr, Smith & Wesson... I've probably missed one.

Back up/off duty weapons are all the above, plus J-frames, Colt Mustangs, etc.

Duty are all .45 or 9mm, must pass inspection by the Range Gods, and must be qualified with.

 

[Big Mike]

I recall reading in a gunrag several years ago that it was speculated that the production cost of a Glock pistol had finally dropped below 100 bucks.

It is also a volume business and it all depends how specs look when sent out for bids on new firearms (or any tool/equipment for that matter). Don't like Glocks? Write a bid request for DA/SA as a requirement and Glocks won't even submit a letter for your consideration. Don't like Motorola radios? Write a bid request for the Kenwood you've been aching to have. Etc......Mike