It's been a couple of years since I posted this excerpt. The full article also covers the special LAPD Ithaca shotgun.
Jack Harper, "LAPD – All Purpose Firepower", July, 1970 Guns & Ammo.
...Along with standardization of technique has come fairly complete standardization of duty revolvers. Unless an officer has had his 6-inch pistol for over two years, he must soon turn it in on a 4-inch job.
On the other end of the scale, no officer - even plainclothes detectives or those uniformed men who
are off-duty - may carry a 2-inch gun. Generally, this is to insure that an officer qualifies with, and carries, only one gun.
The 4-inch barrelled revolver is thought to be the best compromise for power, accuracy and concealability. The LAPD Academy has been issuing the 4-inch S&W Combat Masterpiece (I think that's a mistake – should be 6-inch K-38) for some years now, although there is a choice of other' Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers on the "approved" list.
Recently, as an experiment leading up to the full changeover to double-action shooting, one class of the LAPD Academy had all of its revolvers issued double-action only. The men had some initial difficulty but soon caught up with the qualification schedule.
Observing qualification on the combat range included watching some 20-year veterans. This group have only recently been made to continue regular qualification, and while they swung their 6-inch K-38s and Colt Officers Models with ease, there were some hits pulled into the shoulders of the silhouettes, on double action.
On the question of loads, it's hard to avoid the .38 Special Versus Everything Else controversy. The duty load now recommended by the LAPD range officers is the Remington .38 HighVelocity 158-grain round-nose leadbullet cartridge. In a 4-inch barrel, this load gives the regulation 950 fps thought desirable for urban police use.
Many range officers at the Academy have expressed a preference for a brand of .38 Special ammo that offers a full-weight, round-nose bullet with a higher velocity and a hollow point. Tests showed, to their satisfaction, that the round is more effective for police purposes. Somewhere along the line, the word came back down, "no dum-dum bullets – bad public relations!"
