What sidearm is most common among Police?

[JJ45]

The pistol most Police agencies in the US arm their officers with?

Reason why?

[Shadow9mm]

If I had to guess, Glock.

Reason why, cheap, easy to maintain. Government generally picks the lowest bidder, regardless of what is subjectively better or best.

[TunnelRat]

At one time I would have said Glock, but I'd be curious where the SIG P320 now ranks.

[Jim Watson]

PD here disallowed the previous assortment and now allows only Glock 17 and 19.

[jmr40]

Ten years ago it would have been Glock 22's. Today it would be Glock 17's. At one time those 2 made up about 2/3 of all LE handguns.

The only other 2 major players are the Sig 320 and Smith M&P. I can't recall seeing anything else in a large department since they moved away from revolvers. I used to see some Beretta 92's, Sig 226's, and Smith 5900 series pistols, but that has been a while.

[DubC-Hicks]

Unfortunately my Sheriff's Office admin is stuck in the stone age, so we haven't updated since 08. We're stuck with the XD-45 Tactical until I can convince them otherwise. And the local city agencies follow our lead.

Out of the 8 counties surrounding us, 6 issue Glocks (mixed between 17s and 22s), one issues the M&P 2.0 9mm, and the last issues the XDm Elite OSP 9mm. Michigan State Police issues Glock 17s and 26s.

Being a firearms instructor and member of some specialty teams, I go to a lot of trainings where I get a chance to interact with a lot of people from other agencies statewide. Glocks are still the most common, by far.

[MTT TL]

Our Sheriff's office lets them use whatever they want to use but the city police switched from Berrettas to S&W M&P's about 10 years ago.

[TailGator]

It's Glock on the belts in my area, too.

Why? Not privy to the decision making, but Glock has a history of being very price competitive for LEAs. Reminds me of a time when an astronaut was asked what he was thinking right before liftoff. He replied, "I'm thinking, this thing was built by the lowest bidder."

[101combatvet]

It's Glock; departments get a nice price break on them.

[Spats McGee]

Around here, Glocks. A few agencies carry Sigs or M&Ps, but Glocks make up an overwhelming majority of the pistols carried by LE. The only real question is which model. If I had to guess, mostly 17s with a few 21s thrown in for uniformed officers. Detectives and plainclothes may get to carry something smaller.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by DubC-Hicks

Unfortunately my Sheriff's Office admin is stuck in the stone age, so we haven't updated since 08. We're stuck with the XD-45 Tactical until I can convince them otherwise. And the local city agencies follow our lead.

That seems like an awesome choice. I’d love to be issued that. I just find the trigger, caliber, capacity and grip safety excellent. Do you guys carry a light attached?

I’m interested…what don’t you like about it. You surely have more experience than I do.

[MarkCO]

Originally Posted by TunnelRat

At one time I would have said Glock, but I'd be curious where the SIG P320 now ranks.

I still see Glocks more than anything else. Some M&Ps. I know of a few PDs that switched to P320, one of them is going back to Glocks.

[DubC-Hicks]

I’m interested…what don’t you like about it. You surely have more experience than I do.

I'm not a fan of 45 ACP for duty, I'm a 9mm fan. For capacity, recoil, grip size, and ammo cost reasons. We can qualify the department on 9mm for around half the cost of 45, and smaller stature officers don't like the 45 grip and full 5" slide.

I'm also not a fan of the original XD line overall. The gun itself doesn't instill much confidence for me, as I've had issues with other personally owned XD/XDm's. But to be fair, I've had no issues with my issued gun. The XD grip texture and trigger also leave a lot to be desired, for me at least.

And yeah, we're issued TLR-1 HLs with them.

[TunnelRat]

Originally Posted by MarkCO

I still see Glocks more than anything else. Some M&Ps. I know of a few PDs that switched to P320, one of them is going back to Glocks.

I think it also depends on the region. In my area there are a lot of P320s, but we’ve heard from other people that in their state it’s not prevalent at all. I’m mainly curious if there is a breakdown somewhere that’s not anecdotal, but at the same time those are likely press pieces from the manufacturers themselves and not exactly unbiased. I think Glock is still at the top, I was more trying to imply I think their dominance isn’t as widespread as it once was.

[MarkCO]

Originally Posted by TunnelRat

I was more trying to imply I think their dominance isn’t as widespread as it once was.

I agree. I know Glock has some numbers and I saw some breakdown of how they got their "70%" that they claimed at in about 2010. It was total departments in the US according to the DOJ as the denominator. The numerator was the number of departments that allowed, specified or bought Glocks. So it was never 70% of officers, but maybe 60ish percent.

In 2018, they claimed 65%. I'd be surprised if it is much over 50% total today, but yes, I do think it is regional to some degree. The Sheriff's Dept. of the county I live in "authorizes" several pistols, including Glock. But there are still some that carry 1911s and Revolvers that don't make the list, but they were grandfathered in.

I just worked SHOT on the live fire range. I had a bunch of LVPD come through and some who worked to make sure the guns did not walk off. There was a variety.

[44caliberkid]

I mainly just see Glocks, if it’s something different then usually an M&P.

[JJ45]

Originally Posted by DubC-Hicks

I'm not a fan of 45 ACP for duty, I'm a 9mm fan. For capacity, recoil, grip size, and ammo cost reasons. We can qualify the department on 9mm for around half the cost of 45, and smaller stature officers don't like the 45 grip and full 5" slide.

I'm also not a fan of the original XD line overall. The gun itself doesn't instill much confidence for me, as I've had issues with other personally owned XD/XDm's. But to be fair, I've had no issues with my issued gun. The XD grip texture and trigger also leave a lot to be desired, for me at least.

And yeah, we're issued TLR-1 HLs with them.

Can you describe the issues you had with the XD?....Thanks

[DubC-Hicks]

Can you describe the issues you had with the XD?....Thanks

The first XD-9 I bought used, with seemingly not very many rounds through it. Within just a few hundred rounds, the striker retainer pin broke. No idea how much it had been dry fired in its life but it didn't have many rounds through it. Then I bought a new XD Mod 2 9mm full size, which has been flawless. Then bought an XDm 9mm full size, which was plagued with fail to feeds and fail to ejects. Traded it to our department Springfield armorer, who replaced some parts and got it running. And just recently ended up with an XDm Elite OSP 9mm that I've put approx 1000 rounds through and actually like a lot. But still have a bad taste in my mouth of Springfield XD guns.

[L-2]

Post 6 and above,
Thanks for the info. Prior to you, I wasn't actually aware of any organization which actually prescribed or issued any XD series firearm. Apparently, Michigan has a few departments, which I'll make a mental note for my own knowledge.

I was mainly issued Glock through my career.
Calif. Highway Patrol I hear issues an S&W M&P model (.40 I think);
Nevada Highway patrol is issuing some model of SIG P320.
Local agencies I've mainly seen Glock, but some allow personally-owned pistols of various makes, models, and calibers which can become almost impossible to keep track of in my mind, if I can even find out what.
Of course, as most have heard, FBI has been issuing Glocks, but probably still allows some variety of personally-owned handguns.
Customs & Border Protection went with GlockT (with three models being decided upon by its management for issuance, not particularly an individual's choice of which model).
The military, which might include its police functions, too, are SIG M17 or M18, but depending on exact job or designation, probably deviate (whether SEAL, NCIS, OSI, etc.)
USCoastGuard went with Glock. I don't know how large number-wise they are and don't quite understand whether the OP (or I, for that matter) considers them "police" or something else.

Until with Post 6, and the XD, I'm also unaware of any departments using HK or Walther, but I suspect somebody out there will know of at least one in all the USA.

In the mid-2010s, I was also told by a Glock representative of the 65% to 80% estimates for Glock & LE, but this was before the LE adopting the, then, newly designed SIG P320 models, which I can only suspect has eroded some of the Glock LE usage percentages.

[DubC-Hicks]

Until with Post 6, and the XD, I'm also unaware of any departments using HK or Walther, but I suspect somebody out there will know of at least one in all the USA.

One nearby richy small city currently issues VP9s. Prior to that, they had USP40s. I'm not aware of any with Walthers at this point though.

[Oogie34]

On a bit of a side note, does anyone know of any agency/department that uses a hammer fired pistol anymore? A few years back CBP switched from H&K P2000s to Glock 47s. They are the last agency I know of that used a hammer fired gun. SSA OIG used to use P229s, but I'd bet they have switched to strikers too.

[L-2]

Post 20, thanks for the info.

Post 21, regarding hammer-fired, I'm aware one department used to issue the P226 SIG, and allowed those who were issued that pistol to keep them, even though they currently issue a Glock 17 (unknown if it stayed with the Gen4), but it also allowed its officers to use personally-owned pistols from some type of approved list.

Regarding the G47 (I believe Border Patrol gets the G47), some of CBP's personnel instead, were issued the G19gen5MOS (Customs, e.g. at airports). CBP also has its special 11+1 round version of the G26gen5, but I don't personally know what unit or job-function gets that particular Glock. As there are several thousand CBP cops who'd know much more/better than me (just a retired LEO).


More recently, word has it the Staccato 2011 is being OK'd, sometimes issued, to various units, or individually purchased for duty-use, such as USMarshall Service, LAPD SWAT, and unknown-to-me lesser known departments/agencies.

Post 21, you might consider putting more info down in your bio/member data, btw.

[Ignition Override]

The only LEO I’ve been near was four years ago.
Train station, Nürnberg/ Nuremberg Germany.

After I asked him what they carry (“….P6?”) , he pointed to his HK P30.
Even just northwest of Austria they are “Glock-less”.

But our “version” of Federal Police seldom carry MP5s in US airports or larger train stations.

[DubC-Hicks]

On a bit of a side note, does anyone know of any agency/department that uses a hammer fired pistol anymore?

I'd have to look and see what our MI DNR guys are carrying these days. Up until like last year, the last time I actually looked at one of their holsters, it was .40 S&W P226/P229s. There was talk of them switching to the Glock like MSP, now I'm curious.

1911s are still floating around in duty holsters as well. Although none very local to me.

[Mongo_Bongo]

Over the years the local PD went from Smith .357 revolvers to Smith 9mm to Smith .40 back to Smith 9mm.