1911's on the job

[ponyboy]

our dept. is looking at new issued guns. we now carry beretta 40 cal. we also can carry a few other weapons that are approved by the dept. i carry a springfield champion model. we have looked at glock, sigs, and the springfield xd. we now have para ord. double actions were are testing. when i had these sent to us i also had 2 s/a 1911 sent. my chief liked them enough to see if any other dept. carry them, and what they think.

c'mon guys i need the help. thanks

[dep2386]

My department issues Sig 220. However, you are allowed to carry privately owned pistols. These include Glocks, Springfield 1911s, Colts, Kimbers, Wilsons, and Les Baer pistols.

I carry a Springfield Pro-Model. Out of about 110 road officer 10 to 15 carry 1911s.

Numerous agencies in New Mexico and Texas carry 1911s. I would check with your firearms instructors to see if they could offer a transition course for people who want to carry 1911s. An excellent compromise might be the Para LDA. I have owned two both had serious problems and had to be sent back for warranty work. However they have been out for several years and all the bugs should have been worked out. They have one of the smoothest trigger pulls.

If I can be of further help let me know. Good Luck.

[wichaka]

Tacoma P.D. in WA. state issues Kimbers, may want to contact them. There are many dept. here in WA. that allow 1911's, even though they ain't issued.

All the 1911's that are carried in my dept. have been built by me. Most of those were just work overs from stock 1911's.

[Moose63845]

Mount Prospect IL carries several different 1911's, I've seen para's and some single stacks not sure what make though. There are also a few agencies down state IL that carry em but I can't remember any of their names (sorry). However if you want some major players that carry single action 1911's, just look to the LAPD SWAT who has been using nothing but 1911's since their inception, and the FBI's HRT which adopted the Springfield over all other tested handguns.

[SMMAssociates]

Many years ago, on the old CompuServe SafetyNet forum (which morphed into POLICE for a while) I made the acquaintance of an Officer from the El Monte CA PD. They carried .45's, and off the top of my head there were only a couple choices - Colt and S&W.

Another friend with Reno NV PD carried an S&W M19 Combat Magnum (.357) until they upgraded to the S&W (4506, I think). I'd mention his name, but then they'd tear up your correspondence and send a hit squad too. Not to mention what they'd do to me....

(Reno put in a keypad-operated combination lock on the back door - where the Officers would bring in prisoners, etc. Saved a ton on replacing lost or stolen keys, but within a week somebody'd written the combination on the back door.... It gets funnier, but some people with little sense of humor know where to find me :eek: .)

(I'm an old rent-a-cop. I carried the M19 in 6" for years as a duty weapon - I'm kind of large, and it didn't look too silly - and assorted .380 and 9mm semi's for backup and concealment. I also concealed a 4" S&W M10HB at times. Currently I'm doing training and dispatch. There's a Para Tac-Four or Colt Combat Commander on my belt unless I need to really hide things and use a PPK/S.)

Transitioning to the SA's is a bit different. DA/SA and DAO semi's seem to be a lot easier to pick up on. Just IMHO, but nibbling at the forums hereabouts seems to show that pure SA's scare administrators too. Para's LDA's don't look like SA's.... If an Officer trains with any of these (as distinct from qualifying once a year), though, there should be no problems. Just don't hand him one and send him out onto the street....

Hope some of this helps.

[dldarrow]

San Diego Police Department now allows officers to purchase and carry their own 1911s. So I put down my Sig 220 and have been carrying my 25 year old Colt Gov't model and my new Springfield Pro, and I haven't looked back.

[ponyboy]

i want to thank all of you for the info. maybe i am a little bias, since i own 5 1911. i hope my chief sees it like all of us...thanks

[J213]

In most medium size P.D.s & S.O.s in Okla. it really common, myself and two other officers in our dept. carry them. Thats three out of six, and one of the other three is shopping for one. I'd say 50% or more the surrounding county guys (Rogers, Mayes, Muskogee, and Delaware counties)carry one brand or another of 1911. Tulsa P.D., and Broken Arrow P.D. are pretty strict about their guys carrying their issued weapons. Our chief carries his issue Glock very little and he's the first to tell anyone, if he knows he is headed into a bad scene, he reaches for his Colt GM first.

[pepperbelly]

I worked at a small to medium dept. in north central Texas in the '80s. We all carried .45acp pistols, most or all Colt. We could carry almost any weapon we could qualify with, and we all had to buy our own. I carried a Colt MkIV series 70 government model.
Jim

[ltdave]

my city department in Jackson County Oklahoma, didnt allow any single action autos. one detective was grandfathered in and carried a SS S80MKIV...

the county sheriff carried a 1911A1 in a special flap holster he had designed to 'hide' the cocked and locked hammer. he had told me that some lady had pointed to it when he was in the grocery store and exclaimed quite loudly that 'He has a COCKED gun!"...

the Sheriff and the Police Chief both went in plain clothes unless there was some big deal going on. in fact now that i think about it the deputies wore white button down shirts with a badge on them for their entire uniform, pairing that with jeans or slacks. definitely low budget...

david

[pepperbelly]

Heh heh. Dave, carried in condirtion 1 using a Bianchi Auto Draw. It was a front opening holster hat left everything above the trigger guard exposed. Our detective was a Viet Nam vet and said he was always nervous seeing all the cocked and locked .45s hanging out of our holsters.
The funny thing about that holster is that you could come up behind me and lift me off the ground by the pistol butt and it wouldn't come out. The only way to draw it was to slightly tip it forward and push it out the front.
Jim