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What did Houston police carry prior to being required to carry .40 S&W? To my understanding, they could carry anything they chose to purchase, meeting certain standards of course.

I've heard everything from 6 inch Colt Pythons to 6 inch S&W Highway Patrolmans .357 magnums to Colt 1911s to simple M-10 and OP ,38 Spl revolvers According to Wikipedia in the late 30s o early 40s they mandated .44 revolvers after a shootout that didn't go so well.

Discuss. Show photos. Tells stories. I'm sure we have a lot of HPD active and veterans and their children in here

I knew one ~20 years ago who carried a S&W 9mm auto; a model 39 or 59, maybe. It was definitely owned by him.

Back in the 60's to early 80's the HPD PO's I hung out with mostly carried Model 19 S&W with a couple of 1911's and Model 28 Smith's thrown in.. I rarely saw a Python most likely because of the cost difference between Smith and Colt. Also as I remember it there was a price break on POs buying Smiths. Colt had price protection on their firearms as did Browning back in those days. I don't know if Colt may have allowed reductions for PO's. A cadet usually was not rolling in cash. I do know they bought their own weapons.

I think they were like many departments and went from the .357 Model 19 or model 66 in the late '70's/early '80's to a 9mm Model 59. From there, not sure what they moved to, but probably the Glock 22.

EDIT TO ADD: I am talking issue weapons. Like most they would allow some officers to carry a personal weapon of a different type if approved by the Chief or Captain. In our department we had a detective get permission to carry an Ingram MAC 11/9 semi automatic 9mm pistol. The Chief approved it, but then once he saw it he was sorry he had approved it. LOL
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For some reason your post triggered a memory of the Randy Webster incident. That was in the late 70s when HPD obviously carried revolvers. A quick scan of the court documents (his father sued the city, https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/ ... -2007.html) simply refers to "regular police service revolvers".

A relatively recently retired HPD officer/friend carried a 1911 .45 caliber on duty.

J.R.@A&M wrote:For some reason your post triggered a memory of the Randy Webster incident. That was in the late 70s when HPD obviously carried revolvers. A quick scan of the court documents (his father sued the city, https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/ ... -2007.html) simply refers to "regular police service revolvers".

I looked that up after you posted. The case was very disturbing. I hope such things no longer happen.

So Houston, unlike Kalifornia and Noo Yoak, didn't have all the bleeding hearts that were scared of the word "magnum"

sugar land dave wrote:

J.R.@A&M wrote:For some reason your post triggered a memory of the Randy Webster incident. That was in the late 70s when HPD obviously carried revolvers. A quick scan of the court documents (his father sued the city, https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/ ... -2007.html) simply refers to "regular police service revolvers".

I looked that up after you posted. The case was very disturbing. I hope such things no longer happen.

In all fairness, reading through all the legal jibberish, I can see it now: I'm sure the Shreveport "youth" was no angel. The scuffle was probably more complicated than him having or not having a gun. BUT all anybody in the media cares about is: His "family" start crying "he a good boy. he never hurt nobody. Police brutality, blablabla" Rent-a-mob walks the streets singing hymns, chanting and hooting. Bleeding heart squad from the federal government "comes to the rescue" and local police are thrown under the bus to prevent a riot appease bleeding hearts in the media and see that "justice" is served. Same thing with Rodney King. The police did this to try to prevent exactly this from happening and having their lives ruined.

I'm not in favor of police unjustly murdering somebody and covering it up. But situations can be more complicated than the media and "courts" depict them

To be honest, I did not read any media reports; all I read was a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. I also will admit to reading that while I was much too tired, so if I mis-characterized this in your mind, please accept my apology to you.

I know a retired HPD officer carried a .45 - 1911

The academy used to require you to have a .357 long after most cops went to autos, no idea what they require now. Before 1997 there was a list of approved firearms that you could choose from if you wanted something other than the .357. but in 97 the only handguns you could have were Beretta, Sig 229 and S&W 410. They added some guns like the glock and dropped the Beretta and as of 2007 it became Sig P229 or P226, Glock 22, Glock 23 or the Smith & Wesson M&P40 with the Springfield XD being added to the list in jan of 2012. If you had carried a different gun before that year it was grandfathered in. The current chief is supposed to carry a 1911.

sugar land dave wrote:To be honest, I did not read any media reports; all I read was a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. I also will admit to reading that while I was much too tired, so if I mis-characterized this in your mind, please accept my apology to you.

Actually the ruling posted was all I read. I was just reading in between the lines. I read a lot of political correctness, political grandstanding and political pressure.

Again, not necessarily agreeing with what the policemen did or the policy it's just I can easily see how this can be more complicated. The police might and done this and the department probably had that policy to avoid exactly this from happening...and it was brought out and made everything even worse. I know this sounds a little Dirty Harryish but....well there's a reason those movies and others like it (Death Wish movies) are so popular

EEllis wrote:The academy used to require you to have a .357 long after most cops went to autos, no idea what they require now. Before 1997 there was a list of approved firearms that you could choose from if you wanted something other than the .357. .

REQUIRE a .357 Magnum. Meaning they banned .38 Special guns? I always thought prior to 1997 HPD could carry anything they wanted

Doug.38PR wrote:

EEllis wrote:The academy used to require you to have a .357 long after most cops went to autos, no idea what they require now. Before 1997 there was a list of approved firearms that you could choose from if you wanted something other than the .357. .

REQUIRE a .357 Magnum. Meaning they banned .38 Special guns? I always thought prior to 1997 HPD could carry anything they wanted

I said acadamy as in the HPD academy. They used to required all cadets to have .357 which has little to do with reg officers except some continued to use their academy firearm. Now with revolvers not being an option for HPD any more unless it is grandfathered they can't use .38 since 97