A question for LEO’s and others

[medezyner]

My son is doing his criminal justice internship at a local city PD in hopes he will get hired there when he graduates this year. He’s a pretty good shot with his 1911 clone (this is where Dad takes a bow) so I was thinking of maybe a nice 1911 style duty weapon for a graduation gift, but I’m reconsidering.
1. PD’s issue their own side arms; some won’t let you qualify with your choice of handgun? Some let you qualify with your own personal side arm, but will they reimburse for range ammo? I don’t know what the norm is. What are police departments doing out there?
2. I’m thinking a smarter/nicer gift would be an off duty gun and of course it would be a Kahr…and why not? A nice MK9 would make a great graduation gift for a future LEO.
Thoughts, suggestions

[Smoke Eater]

He may not be able to pick his off duty carry weapon either, or they may give him certain weapons to select from.
I would wait to see what restrictions if any they have before you purchase

Cheers,
Dave

[Dietrich]

You could also check and see what he would be allowed to carry as a bug.

[Bawanna]

All departments are different, city, county and regionally. Usually the smaller departments seem to be a little more open for options. At my dept officers are required to carry the issued sidearm in our case a Glock 21SF 45. Detectives can carry any quality firearm that they qualify and get approved which is pretty easy. All officers can carry any quality and well know brand of backup or of duty gun. Lots of Kahrs, revolvers, whatever. For a long while here on the west coast any 1911 was frowned on and usually not allowed. That seems to be going the other way again and alot of our county guys and one of our detectives is carrying a Kimber. I guess it really depends on the department, there's no set rule accross the board. Another consideration is alot of our officers want their bug to shoot the same caliber as their duty gun so they have lots of the same ammo.
Our dept supplies ammo for off duty and backup guns if we have it on hand. Since we had 9's, then 40's and now 45's we have those on hand. 38's and 380's have to purchase their own.
Best of luck to your son, hope he gets hired on there like he hopes.:cool:

[medezyner]

The city’s population is around 110,000 so it not being a small department they may have more rigid requirements of sidearm & bug. Good point about having the same caliber in the bug as the duty gun. He starts next week, so I told him to keep his eyes open, take notes and ask questions…which he should be doing anyway.