Cop guns...

Detectives and plain clothes officers were not required to carry the standard 6" barreled revolver on duty
Click to expand...

I'm quite certain that LAPD dicks were required to carry the six incher in the early 60s. My LAPD buddies complained about it all the time. By the time that version of Dragnet (66?) and Adam-12 (later) were on the air, policy had changed.

But I'm just not sure what they did in 1949 or when the "all must carry six inch" policy came to be.


Sgt Lumpy
 
Dragnet was first filmed in the late 1950s and then was revived into the 1970s.

Adam 12 was filmed in the late 1960s and up to around 1975.

Sometime in the middle to late 1970s there was a very good article in Guns and Ammo about the history and current status of firearms in the LAPD. I think I still have it, but I'll be damned if I know where it is in my house.

This (also from G&A) article from a few years ago talks about firearms from 1984 on, and sort of surveys revolvers, but it appears to be strictly from the perspective of a uniformed officer.

http://archives.gunsandammo.com/content/guns-of-the-lapd


The only possible reason I can think of as to why LAPD might have required everyone to carry the long-barreled revolvers is because of the increase in violent drug crime in the 1960s. The 158-gr. LRN bullet was still standard issue into the 1970s, so it might have been a somewhat desperate attempt to increase stopping power without changing ammo or going to a more powerful gun/cartridge combination.
 
This is a wonderful thread. The theme of my collection is military and police service and from here on I plan to focus pretty exclusively on police revolvers and semiautomatics.

Outstanding!
 
I've got an S&W 4506-1 that I'm pretty sure came out of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Police Department, but I'm not sure how to confirm that...
 
I have a SW model 59 9mm pistol which was bought by a St Louis City cop for off-duty carry in 1971. This was the first year of production. My father-in-law acquired it from the cop in 1973 because he needed money for a home improvement project.

The main spring is incredibly stiff by today's standards. It feeds Remington golden sabers 124 grain just fine.
 
I'll play. A model 64 from Detroit, A model 58 from San Antonio, and a 4506 from Espanola. I have a 6906 and a 4006 that are out of police turn ins, but I don't know the particulars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top