In the early-mid 80's in S. Florida a police department had recently been issued new DA/SA S&W wonder nines, I don't recall the specific model.
Jump forward a couple of months to a briefing about juvenile crime with a room full of officers. One officer in the back, deciding to be a smart-ass, removed the magazine from his new semi-auto, jumped up and said, "I'll show you how to handle juvenile crime!", pointed the gun at the front of the room and pulled the trigger while yelling "bang! bang!", thereby firing the round left in the chamber into the wall a few feet to one side of the lecturer.
After the hubbub died down the lecturer was curious about where the bullet had ended up so he went around a hall to the spot he figured would be right behind the briefing room. It was a women's bathroom. He knocked and on receiving no answer opened the door and went in to find a woman slumped in a stall, dead, shot in the back of the head through the wall.
That's a true story. This has nothing to do with why it took so long for police officers to start carrying semi-autos.
I also have an anecdote from the Dania police department around the same time frame, early 1980's, about an officer who accidentally shot two police cars with his service revolver within the span of a week, from inside the car.
This may have happened. But S&W SA/DA auto loaders from the 39 through the 3rd gen guns had a mag safety and will not fire with the mag removed.
