When they (OFO) sends us through the academy, you get Class 2 uniforms and leather gear... for the P2000. Both the nylon and leather magazine carriers are flap types, and 17/22 style. A lot of officers use them because of costs.
With the 19 magazines, when they go in those carriers, they will bottom out in the pouch. The base plate will be against the top of the carrier loop. It works, but you really need to fingernail it to yank a magazine out that way. Whereas the Bianchi pouch I use, there is no flap... and the base is about 0.75” from the carrier’s edge.
I had a X300 years back... and wasn’t a fan of the controls. My first weapon light was an Insight M3, which I favor that control... which is shared on the TLR-1. The TLR-7A is another contender... which has the push forward aspect of the Surefire... but doesn’t do both that and toggle up/down. However, I feel for officers that don’t have weapon lights already, or even if they do... a $100 light (I’ve seen them hovering around that with coupons) is more appealing than a $300 light (think that is MSRP... but even at $200, that is two times more).
At times, I think they are doing it strictly so officers don’t carry them. And while I’ve seen people do stupid things with them... make officers carry a handheld light, and be done.
Maine is a whole other world. It’s like Officer safety/well being is low on the list.
Personally, I would have ordered the holster as soon as I knew what setups we ran... and had it ready to swap into the rig we use (CBP did issue a nice QD setup for the holster... so have to give them some credit). But the FI yesterday even threatened us that if someone walks in with a light tomorrow (well, today), he will strip the gun from the officer and let management sort it out.
In regards to VF... any word on how long before they get up? And definitely across the entire agency? We get SRT stuff when we sign in (think AMO, as well as Agriculture Specialists [emoji849]), but figured we would have saw weapon lights already on there.
I don’t think it is an OFO thing, but a Maine thing. Go south, I don’t hear issues like that with classmates.
But we even have mixed signals within management. You can have one line tell us after two officers struggled getting a person out of a car to use a taser/test arc to compel an unruly passenger out of the car. And since we don’t have enough tasers for all... we have to sign them out each shift. With COVID, they locked them in a Chief’s office. I’ve had supervisors refuse to open the door at the start of my shift because someone else was coming in a little bit... and they can do it. Or long guns being in locations where it takes at least two minutes to get them into action... and then they say officers aren’t responsible when you argue that we pretty much are stuck with just handguns if s*** goes down.
I love my job, and most of the new officers are great people that want to be here. Senior officers... it depends. A good few take their job in a way that makes me want to stay. But a noticeable amount... makes me wish I didn’t buy my house. Only real positive I can say about them... that FI allowed me eleven P2000 magazines and some .40 ammo (my dad has a USP40 Compact). I’ll try not to tell myself it was because it was less for him to have to deal with.
Our two FIs... we just have to keep them separated or one will JIC the other. Had a supervisor who was an FI... which I wish didn’t take a job down at FLETC. Actually one of the more level headed guys we had. Also have a Chief who is definitely one to back the officers... but again, leaving soon.
FLETC, it was a mixed back. The CBP FIs were pretty good. The one for my session was legacy... whichever side that had 686s prior to the Clinton EO on purchasing duty weapons. The head guy down there knew his stuff. Actual FLETC guys... complete asshats. One told a trainee to move a vehicle with a shotgun on the back. When another trainee moved it (safely, I will add), he yelled at him for doing it. Another yelled at me for using BoreSnakes to make cleaning a little quicker... yet the CBP FI said it was fine.
Training... it’s like whatever the best way would be, CBP goes 180° and does the opposite. Hell, I’d love to see the rational on how an M4 works better on the land border over a shotgun... but hey, we will just send them back. Put a full-auto M4 in hands that barely can handle a Glock 19. [emoji106]
I was down in Monmouth County, but heard of RTSP.