Deep thoughts on LE loadout these days

[Sammy1]

I started in the 90s and just recently retired. I have seen firearms programs over the years go from marksmanship to point shooting to speed and agility drills (running around). When I left, I was butting heads with my replacement. He was all about fun drills on the range, running and gunning, pushups, squats, burpees.... The problem is no one was held accountable for accuracy. Also, you can't do this stuff with guys that can't qualify on the static Q course. You have to do baby steps with safe gun handling, holster work and marksmanship before you ever move ahead to running and gunning.

The other thing I've seen people over reliant on equipment. Constantly wanting the latest and greatest gear and they can't even shoot their duty gun accurately at 7 yds!

[AMC]

Sadly, so far none of the police misconduct lawyers in the area seem interested. Not a big department, plaintiff isn't dead/crippled/bankrupted.....no big payday or flashy media coverage likely. We'll see. I've told them not to give up. And I'm retired now. Lotta free time. Might need to make these dirty fuckers my new hobby. I may not be Perry Mason, but I'm pretty sure I can be Paul Drake.

Jumping back on this to followup, and for full disclosure. Met with a high ranking officer from the local department, who was very helpful. I've known him for a while, as have others on the forum. He assisted me in getting the full, unredacted initial report. Yay transparency!

On review of the initial report, I recognize a case of what I'd call overzealous incompetence, more than malfeasance. Reading the accounts of the interviews, I'm remembering countless interviews done by officers that I needed to intervene in to redirect, because the officers were letting their preconceptions dictate the outcome, and misconstuing what was being stated to them. Thats not even mentioning the misattribution of a statement made by a witness (recorded by the officer) that he later attributes to the kid in question in order to impeach his statement (noting 'contradictions' that don't actually appear in the kids' statement). Then there's the description of damage to the vehicle in question, and an explanation for the mechanism of damage, that makes you wonder if he took a high school physics class, much less a Collision Investigation Course.

The statements by the two off-duty sworn officers who were witness to the incident were recorded, in a supplemental report, which I don't have access to. But at least they were recorded. And an explanation of the probable cause, which made me just shake my head at the reaching being done, was included. The person who gave me the report said he understood why the case was kicked.

Just to be clear, I'm not slamming this because they're 'small town'. I witnessed the same level of incompetent crap in the big city. As I've said before....few things are more dangerous to the public liberty than a young policeman with nothing to do.

[AMC]

Back to the regularly scheduled programming and @KevH's original thoughts. I think he's right, in that there's a 'thing' here. I think it's driven by a number of factors. The proliferation of 'cool guy gear' into patrol, the rapid development of newer and higher capacity duty pistols with factory extended magazines, the introduction of outer vest carriers with load bearing capability, and also the psychological impact of high profile, high round count, deadly officer involved shootings. More and newer is always 'better' to those lacking context and/or experience. The reality is sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. I always preferred to have that 3rd spare magazine in a secondary/backup pistol.

I think social media, especially Instagram, also heavily influences modern officers equipment choices. And then the young guys feed each others enthusiasm. It's the responsibility of the veteran officers to direct that enthusiasm in productive directions, and not to squash it. I used to tell young officers to stop buying guns, and start buying skill. And that 'work' was the currency they'd need. That new Gucci Glock with an RMR and X300 in a Tier 1 appendix rig is not what you carry on duty, so get some ammo, take a class, get a USPSA or IDPA membership, and start dryfiring. Not as sexy as the new Agency Arms Rose Gold Glock....but its way more useful.

@KevH....the example you gave of the instructor pushing speed is an example of someone who has half the equation. Pushing speed to the point of losing accuracy is a great training exercise to self diagnose your grip. The whole point is to figure it out and eventually fix it so that you can shoot the fist sized group faster. Giving up accuracy to gain some marginal speed is missing the whole point of the exercise....which viewpoint is more common that not among 'tactical' shooters.

[AMC]

Double post. Curse my slow ass wifi.