My agency recently unclinched a little bit with regard to the criteria governing holster selection so we are on the cusp of approving some additional holsters. I would appreciate any informed opinions on this as I view holster selection as pretty important for a variety of reasons. Since the mission is supposed to drive the gear train, let me throw out some things that might be relevant.
Presently all duty weapons are full sized Glocks. I am trying to get approval for the G19 for smaller folks and those who mostly drive a desk. This seems to be a surprisingly uphill battle so that may not happen. We have a few folks running a SF X300 daily.
We adopted the Safariland ALS as soon as it came out. We had some custom kydex belt mount plates made to make them ride a little tighter.
The job is probation work. So we are not fooling the clientele as to whether or not we are armed - they know we are. A concealment garment is a requirement and we settled on the modern looking 5.11 fleece type vest for that. (Different holster selection could change this - I hope).
Not every officer is a meat eater. We have some slighter built folks who could have real problems if one of our convicts squared off with them, thus weapon retention has always been a significant concern - hence the ALS.
The ALS has been great in certain aspects thus far. Very very fast considering the level of active retention and just a rock solid build. But, they are not a lot of fun when squeezing a large human into a small vehicle cockpit (especially with a weaponlight). And the smaller folks in particular walk around with a pistol tumor on their side.
Under consideration would be an open-top AIWB holster as long as the retention can be adjusted so the pistol would not just fall out of the holster if it was turned upside down. Same thing for a kydex rig for 3:00 o' clock carry as well. Either of these would obviously be much lower profile than the ALS which, in turn, will hopefully allow us to largely ditch the 5.11 vest and go to something more sleek and which would blend much better. I, specifically, am pretty stoked about the possibility of being able to carry AIWB with an untucked polo. That's all well and good in that, I am a larger dude and not involved any enforcement ops on a regular basis. I wonder how all that would play though for a smaller female officer.
It has been a while since I played with AIWB while wearing concealable armor. Might be some confliction there, but hopefully I can work that out. Heck, maybe the armor will hide the pistol a little.
We frequently, and unavoidably, find ourselves solo in relatively cramped quarters with the bad guys (think house trailer) - although generally not under openly adversarial conditions (as odd as that may sound). I guess I am wondering if the trade-off of comfort and concealment over having the ALS active retention system (just the thumb latch, not the hood), is worth it.
My other point of pondering is with regard to weapon retention with AIWB over 3:00 o' clock carry. My understanding, and own thought process, is that it is quite a bit harder to take a pistol from someone carrying AIWB than 3 o' clock. I would think this actually goes double for LE since we do not traditionally carry AIWB, thus a crook lunging for a pistol would likely go to the 3 o' clock first - and come up with nothing - thus allowing the officer to get ahead of the curve a little. All that said, every bit of this would be wishful thinking if the crook were to simply work toward the goal of beating the officer unconscious and then taking the weapon, ALS or no....
So, can anyone comment on whether or not AIWB is actually going to be superior from the aspect of weapon retention? And are there any legit resources where I can see what that might look like? (I suspect a certain Mr. Douglas might be a good resource on this...)
And for the 3 o' clock kydex crowd, how much are we giving up there do you think?
Perhaps I have put too much faith or hope in the ALS system to date; but I made that decision for my agency in hopes of giving my folks the best chance of not getting shot with their own weapon.
I am fairly well-versed in the choices of holsters available. Anything from JM Kydex would likely be at the top of the list, but if anyone has any specific suggestions, I would like to hear that.