They, the Agency mandated the following: No external hammer, No grip safety , only, striker fired semi autos with a Minimum 6 round magazine capacity. Approved cals, 380, 9mm. 40 S&W and 45acp. They never even asked us, firearms instructors for input. After it was approved we asked about us recommending changes and were told our input was not needed. Yes, all the 1911 guys were pissed off as well as the Springfield XD crowd. Later, we found out the Admin folks just cut and pasted bits from other agencies policies and made it into a Frankenstein policy of our own. We were not happy about it, in any way, shape, or form!
In my first agency, after a good bit of training and experience, I ended up being the firearms and tactics instructor. At the time we were using a Level 1 security holster, essentially just a thumb break model. On top of that, they were worn and floppy, and several of us had our handguns pop out of the holster when chasing a suspect or in a nasty fight. I went to the Chief and laid out why the holster we were using wasn't up to modern standards and training and pointed out the very real potential for a bad guy to end up with one of our guns when in a tussle. It had happened to me. He asked me to give him a few recommendations and I set to work on that. A couple of days later I had all the information, prices, ect. pulled together to present to the Chief and when I approached him he said, "Oh I had Lt. XYZ go ahead and order us some new leather." When we got our new leather it was a Level II Don Hume holster and not nearly the quality of the Safariland rigs I wanted. I asked the LT how he came about choosing those Don Hume holsters and he said "They were the best price." Fuggen white shirts!
