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Yes, there are a lot of teams who go gear queer. I don't know when you started in LE, but if it was a decade or so ago you should know that a lot of the 'gear' money came from Uncle Sugar through grants and asset forfeiture funds.
My particular heartburn is not with the gear, it is with the teams that have the gear and don't train; or the teams that focus on training for the most dramatic aspect, rather than becoming masters of the basic tasks.
Yet one more reason I'd like to see SAAMI and the serious manufacturers establish an "Industry Working Group" to codify TDP standards, establish armorer/SME standards and credentials and act as gatekeepers to weed out the fly-by-nights, shitbirds and what-have-you.
As someone who works for a police distributor this doesn’t surprise me and the amount of dumbassery you have to put up with that for departments that make choices that make no logical sense will surprise you.
This sort of thing happens all too often. Even knowledgeable people within a LE agency won't recommend the purchase of the most suitable product, because their shooting buddy works for a certain vendor. Sometimes people involved in procurement have a friend who writes for a gun magazine and that heavily influences their opinion about a certain piece of kit. I'm aware of one case where the people holding the purse strings read the U.S. Navy SEALS purchased a particular piece of gear, so they felt that made the gear suitable for straight leg rank and file LEO.
Going with Product A, Product B or Product C does not guarantee success. Anything being adopted for LE use should be thoroughly tested before soliciting bids. If for no other reason, it's the tax payer's money and an agency needs to get the best bang for their buck.
Is it true a PD SWAT team in Nebraska ordered some surplus Advanced SEAL Delivery Systems (ASDS)? :D
Yep and nope. It was actually the Tri-County Emergency Response Team, which was basically formed to protect Kingsley Dam (which forms Lake McConaughy) and the CNPPID owned Kingsley Hydroplant from terrorist activities.
Why the need to protect Kingsley Dam? Lake McConaughy is one of the premier sailing lakes in the Central United States/Great Plains. By-and-large, sailing aficionado's, whether they be windsurfers, cat racers, or yachtsmen are some of the most liberal folks around. Therefore the dam and hydro-electric plant are rightly considered potential domestic terror targets.
The ASDS is projected to give the Tri-County Team the ability to conduct maritime raids AND patrol the base of the hydraulically-filled earthen dam for terroristic activities.
Total bullshit. the ASDS was scrapped, only one was built and it was destroyed:
In April 2006, the program for new submarines was canceled and Northrop Grumman notified of termination. The current submarine was still in development and in use until it was damaged in a "serious fire" in November 2008. As of December 2008, the cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Given the probable extent of fire and water damage (the mini-sub burned for six hours and remained sealed for two weeks) it was highly unlikely that the craft could be saved. Repair was expected to cost $237 million, more than triple the entire original contract. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanc...elivery_System
On 24 July 2009, US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) announced that the ASDS was not going to be repaired citing "competing funding priorities."
If I ever got to be Chief of Firefly PD, I’d tell my property man/armorer/“gun guy”
If the shit you order and give my men don’t work, YOU DONT WORK
I heard about this today from some Tampa area colleagues. There's probably more to the story. Adams arms has (had?) a former FL sheriff working as an employee pushing rifles to agencies.
Being that they are local and have a member of the good ol boy club pushing wares, it's not surprising that sitting Sheriffs would purchase them. After all, piston, cleaner, etc.
We all know that Colt is the easy button but it's not sexy. LEO purchasing is all kinds of screwed up at most agencies. Few can afford (or even know how) to do a proper firearms test. The only large agency that seems to 'get' firearms is the FBI.