M&P wins over another department

[rathos]

Found this article posted on another forum. Looks like S&W pulled in a little more of the market share for LE.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/austin-police-to-start-carrying-same-guns-983585.html

[skyugo]

hmm.. good to see the business going to an american company, i wonder how the cops in austin feel about the change though...

[SWATcop556]

Interesting for sure. I know several officers from that area and it is being met with mixed reviews. Most of them are positive though.

[GermanSynergy]

I know Cedar Park (outside of Austin) officers used to carry Glock 22...'s...

[Whtwolf14]

Interesting....

I've got family in the PD (Detective though) and he told me this past summer that they were requiring their new recruits to purchase their own M&P's....something changed I guess. Either way he currently carries a G21 since he's grandfathered. However I asked his opinion since I was in the market for a M&P .45 and he said he was impressed with the platform. If he wasn't already carrying a Glock, he would carry one with no problems....

[MichaelD]

Good choice, Austin PD!

Still, I hope those who are used to a different platform can either keep their weapons or don't have much difficulty transitioning.

[m39nut]

I think it is a great choice for any new recruits since it has the different grip sizes and left/right hand mag release but at the same time if an officer has carried something else for several years I don't think he should be forced to change as long as he can qualify his existing weapon.

[Entropy]

Actually APD has been using M&P .40s for about 3 years now. I know, my brother works for them. They just had required officers to purchase from an approved list, and three years ago they limited the list to the M&P.

Reviews have mostly been positive, but there have been some premature parts failures like the slide release levers. APD uses the 165gr Gold Dot at 1150fps which is a great overall round, but a little harder on the guns. Hopefully S&W will keep addressing these little things with time so that when my agency's pre 2005 Sigs wear out, we can try to piggyback onto the ATF contract for the M&P .40.

[Irish10]

ATF just authorized the M&P 40 and M&P 40c for carry also. Pretty large contract from what I heard and it will allow other fed agencies to buy off the contract without the bid submission process.

[gsxr-fan]

So let me get this straight; Austin PD will buy 1600 M&Ps for $800,000 or $500 bucks each! Huh!?! Is this the best deal the APD can get from Smith & Wesson? Call me crazy but I thought the idea of buying in quantity was to get lowest price possible...

[kmrtnsn]

Typical police purchases include night sights ($100.00) and six magazines ($150.00). All of that for $500.00 is a really good deal.

[Todd.K]

It will cost the department $800,000.

New holsters are not free, extra mags, training, the ammo for training and qual...

[gsxr-fan]

Thanks for the clarification! My first thoughts were another example of excessive government spending!