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Police gun question


Alpo

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Does the car long arm stay with the car?

 

I recall occasionally in Adam-12 seeing Reed come out at the start of shift carrying an Ithaca 37 which he put in the trunk.

 

Cop cars used to always have a shotgun. Now I think they've always got an AR. Regardless, does the gun stay with the car at shift change? When the first cop gets off duty at 4:00, did he take the gun into the station and it gets locked up in the armory, while the cop is going on duty at 4:00 picks up one at the armory and takes it out to the car?

 

It would certainly be easier to leave it in the car. But it seems that leaving it in the car would having it end up all gunked up when you needed it.

 

So what's the policy, in the police department that you work or worked for?

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Stayed with the car.  Theoretically it was supposed to be checked at the beginning of each shift by the guy taking over the car.  In reality nobody checked them unless it was somebody training a rookie.  They got checked once a week on Sunday when each car was called in to the station to be checked for unreported damage, check all lights and siren and to make sure the proper gear was in the car.  (Spare tire, emergency blanket, fire extinguisher, etc.)

 

The shotguns were removed and put in a gun locker when the car was taken to the garage and left for maintenance.

 

It was not unheard of for a shotgun to be found "gunked up" by some stupid SOB putting a cigarette or candy wrapper in the barrel.

 

Shotgun maintenance  or cleaning was done almost never.  A couple Lts and Sgts would not allow anyone time to do it.  idjits

 

Angus

 

 

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30 minutes ago, Black Angus McPherson said:

In reality nobody checked them unless it was somebody training a rookie

That's what's happening in the book, that caused my question. First day on the job and his training officer has him pop the trunk and they're looking at the stuff in it, which included an AR-15 with ammunition.

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Depends on the department SOP. My department issued handgun and long gun to each officer. We also had take home vehicles.most cities had shift cars. County and state departments had take home cars.

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When dispatch advised there was no relief for your car, you took the shotgun/AR's into the station to be locked up. Otherwise stayed in vehicle. Next relief's responsibility to check the guns at shift change. Of course there always was the one that would just pull the trigger and bang, air condition roof and a whole lot of paper work.

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When I started with my agency over thirty years ago the cars were assigned to the beat. You usually got what was with the car from the off-going guy. If nobody drove "your" assigned car the previous shift, you went to the armory and picked one out. At the patrol district there's still a nice pattern of OOB in the steel ventilation grille from where Bruce "left out a step" while he checked it for proper loading. (there was a sand-filled clearing barrel for that right outside, fancy that) Yeah, that OOB dent(s) were still there thirty years later because I finished my career there.

 

At the end, personally owned/carried rifles and shotguns were the norm. The were also a number of shotguns and rifles, more often that not M16's that were available to be checked out for the shift. Rifles were also being issued individually along with shotguns but most carried their own. I did. The policies on this vary as much as the departments. Everybody did it similar but different LOL.

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In the book Earp Speaks Wyatt tells about how he and Bat Masterson had shotguns staged and ready to use throughout Dodge City.  Guns were loaded with buckshot and had a small box of buckshot with each gun.

Someone borrowed one to go shoot birds outside of town.  Later, Earp pulled the returned gun to stand down a crowd of rowdies.  Wyatt found out later that the gun was loaded with birdshot and surmised that it would only ticked off the rowdy and his gang.

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