Unusual LEO sidearms?

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Early 1980's Aspen CO standard issue to uniform personnel 2 inch Model 60 with kahki shirt and blue jeans. Only lasted a couple years before they went back to 4 inch Model 66.
 
My Great Grandpa used to carry a Ruger Blackhawk .41 Magnum with a 4 5-8" Inch Barrel. As a Reserve Officer. Damn, does that thing kick like a mule :neener:.
 
years ago when my father-in-law was a town cop here he carried a colt snubbie det spl on his work belt (he was a mechanic too)... and a few years later when a good friend of mine started patroling this little burg he ordered a s&w mod 25-5 .45 long colt to carry on duty...


LIFE IS SHORT........................................
 
When I was a Kentucky Park Ranger in the 1980's, our idiot Governor, Martha Layne Collins saw a Park Ranger at a resort carrying a 4" mod 10 S&W with a regular duty belt, which at that time was way obsolete for a cop. Well, she thought it was too scary looking, so she issued an order that Rangers couldn't carry anything but a S&W model 60 and NO duty belt or visible police equipment, except a paddle holster. Yes, I said a paddle holster that anybody could take out of the belt by just grabbing the gun. This is what all KY Rangers carried for years until they finally got a non-idiot as a Governor. I think it lasted for about 6-8 years. I had to carry my cuffs, etc in my uniform pockets. I looked like a hamster with it's cheeks full of seed. This is what happens when you have a liberal idiot woman dictating police policy. This is also why I left and got a better job as soon as I could.
Another thing comes into mind. When I was a kid in the 60's, we had a cop in my home town that carried a Ruger .22 mag single action with a 7 " barrel for a duty gun. when I was a kid, I thought it was a real cowboy gun, but years later I was talking to him and he told me the real story. They had to furnish their own weapon, and that's all he had. He was a cop until a few years ago when he retired as a chief in another community.
 
Wow, some pretty interesting guns have been carried, especially the single action revolvers.

bucky, that is plain out ridiculous! A revolver on a duty belt is scary? People can be pretty pathetic sometimes.

TAB, sorry for jumping on you, I didn't realize you were referring to the officer's back problem, not his choice of weapon.
 
this goes back a few years: I used to work at a hospital in Chattanooga, Tennesse (Erlanger Medical Center) that had an affiliation with local Chattanooga PD; the Erlanger 'security' officers were actually an extension of the local PD so we had ARMED officers with full arresting powers on the hospital campus; in the days prior to the switch from S&W 9mm 3rd Gen autoloaders to S&W .45 ACP autoloaders, we had a regular evening shift guard who used a Browning Hi-Power w/ Winchester Black Talons; neat to see, but made me wonder just what the heck was with him...seem the Erlanger guards had the option to carry personal weapons since they weren't part of regular street patrols

just remembered another sighting...my parents are from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area of PA; there are alot of older ethnic Catholic pockets in this area leftover from the coal mining days; it is a regular late spring & summer thing for local churches & volunteer fire departments to hold 'bazaars' or basically controlled neighborhood gatherings; a few years before my stepmom passed in 2007, I attended a local bazaar for a few hours with my parents; some of the 'lighter' LEO duties like event patrols & serving subpeonas are done by local appointed 'volunteer' constables (most are part time local LEO's or retired LEO's or former MP's); I spotted 2 different constables that evening with Ruger aluminum framed semiautos...one appeared to be a single stack mag (.45 acp) & the other appeared to be a double stack mag (.40 S&W or 9mm)
 
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I was reading the letters to the editor in a 1964 issue of Guns & Ammo magazine (signed by Carbine Williams!), and one of them was from a state trooper or sheriff's deputy who was commonly tasked with high-speed chases; he wrote that because he and his compatriots were in situations where they'd have to fire through car chasses, they carried .44 magnums, of what barrel-length I can't recall.
 
Our local Constable carries a Smith & Wesson revolver in .45acp with a 4" barrel. He has always loved the caliber but hated the semi-auto guns that it came in. He carries three moon clips in specially made holders. I have been with him at the range and he is really something to watch not only shoot but reload. He must have trained with Jerry Mikulek.
 
In another universe, a long time ago, when I was a blue-coat on the Macon PD, we had to provide our own duty sidearms. Most people had a 4" bbl S&W Model 10, skinny bbl except the detectives who preferred the Colt Detective Special snubby. Almost all were nickle plated because the wisdom of the ages said that the majority of a certain minority population were more afraid of the shiny guns than the black guns because they had more mo-jo in them and would hit harder. However, one guy carried a German WWII P-38, another carried a cut down Ruger Blackhawk in .44 mag, another a standard Rugar Blackhawk in .45 colt. On short detective carried not one but two Browning hi-powers in a custom fitted dual shoulder rig. The night shift usually powered up to .357 magnum because that is when the burglars were active and more shoot outs occurred. The best BUG I could afford (and trusted) at the time was the two-shot DAO Hi-Standard .22 mag derringer carried in my off-side pants pocket. It was meant to be a gut-poker.
 
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No kiddin, a Chief Deputy in a po-dunk county near here carries a cap and ball revolver. He was convicted of domestic violence and cannot carry a firearm. Black powder's o.k. though. Stupid for many reasons, but mainly law enforcement officers are exempt to that law when on duty, but the weapon must be kept at the station when off duty.
 
I've never heard of a LEO that was convicted of any crime that kept his job let alone of domestic violence.
 
LEOs convicted of DV charges are done in the USA. There are no "on the job" exceptions to the bar from possessing firearms.
 
I knew an LEO who carried an H&K P9S in .45 caliber. (!?) He offered to sell it to me, but I didn't think I was interested at the time. :banghead:
 
A town near here has the "you qualify with it and you can carry it" rule. One of the officers carries a blue Colt Delta Elite 10mm. His dad was a State Trooper years ago, and they were issued Deltas. He kept his when they went to Glocks and now his son is using it!
 
A town near here has the "you qualify with it and you can carry it" rule. One of the officers carries a blue Colt Delta Elite 10mm. His dad was a State Trooper years ago, and they were issued Deltas. He kept his when they went to Glocks and now his son is using it!
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I wish I could get on with an agency with that rule. :rolleyes:

All our agencies here issue guns, mostly Glocks of the 9mm/.40 persuasion. I've never seen a cop with anything too wild, but I did, until recently, own a hard-chromed Browning High Power from the early eighties that was originally a cop gun.

I did have a sergeant at an old agency who retired sometime about 2001 or '02 who carried a S&W 686 when the rest of the agency was issued the USP. He got grandfathered in, but I really doubt he could have qualified with the H&K. He shot well with the 686, but from what I understand, he used it much more often as a club than a gun. I know of at least one incident in the 2 or so years that I worked with him that he laid it across somebody's noggin when they needed it, and many more stories from before I started.
 
What I'd *llike* to see (that is, it would be interesting -- I am not making an argument for practicality here ) is a police force that issued or authorized FN FiveSevens

timothy
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We have a few LEOs at the FN Forum that carry their Five Sevens as their duty weapon.
 
Once saw a cop from the Campus police force (yeah...campus has it's own PD) carrying a M&P with no mag in it. I wonder if she knew the mag was not in it...

As far as weird guns though, the local PD has a "if the armorer approves it" rule. So there is a pretty wide range of guns on the force. Oddly enough only a few Glocks. I'm told by the armorer most of the guys either like Sigs or 1911's.
 
Funny, but true story about the full auto Glock 18 9mmNATO

I think the strangest US law enforcement agency sidearm is the true story of a small town GA police chief who was so impressed by a Glock 18 demo that he got his ENTIRE 18 officer dept the full auto Glocks for standard patrol! :uhoh:

I'm not sure of the name of this small GA town, but I know the cops can defend themselves! :D

The 2nd strangest LEO sidearm I ever saw was back in the late 1990s, I saw a uniformed PA state trooper with a compact Firestar( :confused:) pistol on his duty belt. I got a sweet PA state issued Beretta 96D(with Robar NP3) NIB/surplus and was surprised when I saw this state trooper using the small pistol as a main sidearm.

Rusty S
 
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