Training and experience (including experiential knowledge gained the hard way) may influence folks who don't have to conform to employer policy and procedures. Doesn't mean everyone will necessarily arrive at the same informed decisions, though.
My former career started me out with a service revolver, where I was required to carry a minimum of 12 spare rounds when in uniform. (We could carry more, and a lot of us did.) The subsequent years of service pistols resulted in a policy that required carrying whatever number of magazines were issued for uniform assignments (2-3 depending on caliber and weapon), and plainclothes detectives were expected to carry 1 or 2 spare magazines. Kinda loose in some respects. Off-duty? Looser, still.
Like has been said by another retired cop, I'm no longer being sent hither and yon on-duty to suspected or known trouble, nor actively seeking it out to intervene. I'm carrying a little 'lighter' for my own personal risk assessment. Sometimes it's one of my hard-used former off-duty pistols (6-10rd magazines, as I was never particularly a capacity aficionado). Mostly, one or another 5-shot J-frame (with a speed strip). Old habit of having a spare speedloader/strip with a snub. Why change now?
Sometimes even a smaller LCP .380. When I carry the LCP, it's usually without a spare mag, since the diminutive grip size/height and lack of the slide locking back on an empty magazine make reloading bit of a labor-intensive exercise in manual gymnastics, and might become a moot consideration if the fur is in the air. I have, however, run lots of drills over the years to make expeditious and accurate use of the 6rds in the LCP. TANSTAAFL.
Now, what I do is my concern, and I don't try to convince anyone else to do the same. Nor do I particularly care what others do anymore, since I'm no longer responsible for training others, nor teaching and confirming adherence to agency policy. Suit yourselves.
