lemaymiami
Member
From what I've read here, everyone brings their own point of view to the discussion but many don't seem to have a clear idea of the realities facing the policing world. First off, any weapon you allow your officers to bring to the job is a weapon you own for liability purposes and the same goes for ammo. In an ideal world no one would ever make a mistake, and every officer would be dying to get additional range time, but that's just not reality at all. Any chief that allows his/her officers to carry what they please is just asking for trouble and any competent city attorney won't have much difficulty spelling it out (and you can bet that insurance outfits that cover cities will have a say as well...). So much for allowing John Wayne to bring that short barreled Winchester with him...
I always preferred a shotgun, and I had a reputation as a guy who could be counted on to have one in his hand if trouble was coming... Towards the end of my career though, it was clear that shotguns in police work were on their way out -mainly because of our changing recruits. Most candidates in my area weren't hunters as kids and had zero exposure to firearms, and since this was still pre 9/11 our numbers of veteran candidates weren't particularly high at all... add to that the increase in candidates of short stature (bureaucratic speak for female candidates) and you can see how big, bad, thumping shotguns weren't particularly popular (until you got to see the elephant - but that's just something you might learn the hard way...). Indeed one of the biggest hurdles for many recruits at the range was learning to hit much of anything with a shotgun. As a direct result although we equipped every unit with shotguns - you rarely saw anyone carrying one (I guess as a former country boy who grew up hunting small game and VN veteran I must have stood out, all those years ago...). Although we hadn't made the switch to "patrol rifles" (remember this was six years before 9/11....) that was clearly the way we were heading. Since we worked in a suburban/urban area any patrol rifles were probably going to be 9mm... I have no idea how that eventually turned out but after 9/11 I'm sure the trend was toward something in the AR category, and maybe a bit more powerful than a pistol cartridge carbine..
As far as "old shotguns" that "needed replacing" I got a pretty good laugh about that since I only ever used or carried rack grade poppers that might have been from the sixties or late fifties -but were still deadly effective and utterly reliable (if you knew how to use one properly). Of course when officers want new gear they will never have much trouble finding a friendly reporter to do the job on the public and generate pressure on their department -wish I had a nickel for every time I saw one department or other (in my area there were 27 different departments in one county - there are actually more now...) responding to the same kind of media tactics.... by their own officers.
In short if your local department is really squared away, has pretty modern gear, and employs the best current tactics on the street -count your blessings, since that probably isn't the norm. When you watch and see how they actually perform when everything goes bad (imagine being a young officer on that department in Missouri the night of the first riots...) and you'll get a quick dose of reality. That sort of stuff is why I think training is much more important than the actual gear you work with.... Most departments go years and years without being really tested. Heck, most officers never fire a single shot on the street in an entire career -and consider range time as just another obligation, to be gotten through on a hot day and forgotten about. That's the reality in the world I was in.
I always preferred a shotgun, and I had a reputation as a guy who could be counted on to have one in his hand if trouble was coming... Towards the end of my career though, it was clear that shotguns in police work were on their way out -mainly because of our changing recruits. Most candidates in my area weren't hunters as kids and had zero exposure to firearms, and since this was still pre 9/11 our numbers of veteran candidates weren't particularly high at all... add to that the increase in candidates of short stature (bureaucratic speak for female candidates) and you can see how big, bad, thumping shotguns weren't particularly popular (until you got to see the elephant - but that's just something you might learn the hard way...). Indeed one of the biggest hurdles for many recruits at the range was learning to hit much of anything with a shotgun. As a direct result although we equipped every unit with shotguns - you rarely saw anyone carrying one (I guess as a former country boy who grew up hunting small game and VN veteran I must have stood out, all those years ago...). Although we hadn't made the switch to "patrol rifles" (remember this was six years before 9/11....) that was clearly the way we were heading. Since we worked in a suburban/urban area any patrol rifles were probably going to be 9mm... I have no idea how that eventually turned out but after 9/11 I'm sure the trend was toward something in the AR category, and maybe a bit more powerful than a pistol cartridge carbine..
As far as "old shotguns" that "needed replacing" I got a pretty good laugh about that since I only ever used or carried rack grade poppers that might have been from the sixties or late fifties -but were still deadly effective and utterly reliable (if you knew how to use one properly). Of course when officers want new gear they will never have much trouble finding a friendly reporter to do the job on the public and generate pressure on their department -wish I had a nickel for every time I saw one department or other (in my area there were 27 different departments in one county - there are actually more now...) responding to the same kind of media tactics.... by their own officers.
In short if your local department is really squared away, has pretty modern gear, and employs the best current tactics on the street -count your blessings, since that probably isn't the norm. When you watch and see how they actually perform when everything goes bad (imagine being a young officer on that department in Missouri the night of the first riots...) and you'll get a quick dose of reality. That sort of stuff is why I think training is much more important than the actual gear you work with.... Most departments go years and years without being really tested. Heck, most officers never fire a single shot on the street in an entire career -and consider range time as just another obligation, to be gotten through on a hot day and forgotten about. That's the reality in the world I was in.
A typical robber isn't going fight to death (his death at least) for a few bucks. He probably also won't be well trained, wearing armor and fighting with an AK-47.
