? for older LEO

[VaTom]

Interesting thread that brings back memories. Started in 1976. Worked at a medium sized municipal department with about 200 sworn officers. About 150 were uniform. We each had a locker but rarely did anyone change in locker room. Most did what I did. Kept briefcase, nightstick, raingear, extreme cold weather coat, hat, riot helmet and long baton, filled up pocket notebooks. We didn't have take home cars so we got our gear out before line up and at shift change went down to the street where the line of about 15 district cars were idling from previous shift, got in and headed out.

Early in my career uniform pants had to be dry cleaner and shirts were cotton poly blend so trips to cleaners were a weekly thing, I wanted military creases pressed and starched in shirts so they went also. Later we went to all polyester uniforms that could be laundered at home. Military creases sewn in shirts.

Always checked my Model 10 when dressing at home to go to work even though I never unloaded after work. I always wore a clean uniform shirt every day.

 

[Old_Cop]

I wore my uniform to work with my model 60 in an ankle holster and a civilian jacket. My duty belt with my loaded model 64 in the holster was hung in my locker with the two metal belt hooks hung on the louvered vent. Sometimes some coworker would walk through the locker room and push the hooks dropping the belt and gun inside the locker.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Sticking a loaded gun in a locker isn't limited to revolvers.

I had a deputy sheriff consult with me about suing the city after he stuck his loaded Glock in a cabinet drawer (as was the practice) to enter a locked psych ward.

On the way out he reached into the drawer to retrieve his Glock, stuck his thumb in the trigger guard and shot himself in the liver through the drawer.

He was lucky because this happened in the hospital with the best emergency room in the state. He barely survived, but it was close.

I explained to him that his negligence was primarily responsible for his injuries and that suing the city would be a waste of time and money. I don't know if he found an attorney willing to try.

sounds like a lock cinch workers comp claim to me.

 

[4506517]

When I worked in the "Deathstar" (the courthouse) I would routinely hang my gunboats in my locker with my duty weapon holstered. We issue a level 3 retention holster. Once I finished working out, I would shower, dress, and buckle it right back on.

 

[BAM-BAM]

In good weather Dad (Lt/Capt) would often walk home ( 1.5miles) in the 60s/early 70s. In "uniform" but with just his 2" colt Detective Special in a holster in his hip pocket.

I remember weekly Dry Cleaner runs....to drop off and pick up shirts and pants. This seemed to define where you changed cus you had to clean your own uniforms.... bought on an annual allowance.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

When I worked in the "Deathstar" (the courthouse) I would routinely hang my gunboats in my locker with my duty weapon holstered. We issue a level 3 retention holster. Once I finished working out, I would shower, dress, and buckle it right back on.

I like it!
in New Orleans Tulane and
Broad (where the courthouse was) was called The Temple of Doom.

 

[scott1970]

I had a chat with a retired NYPD cop, and he couldn't wrap his mind around the fact we had take home cars and arrived at work already in uniform. Different worlds.

 

[Doug M.]

As Pat Rogers used to say: "Policing is regional". I can recall friends having NYPD officers visit and go on rides. The idea of being 30 minutes away from a call or backup driving fast was truly bizarre to them - most of them worked in precincts in which a request for assistance meant 10-20 cops in a minute or so. One reserve deputy for several hundred square miles? Brain melt.

 

[handejector]

I noticed him putting him sidearm in his locker. I asked why wasn't he carrying it home with him. He said that he never kept a gun at home because his wife had pulled a gun on him several times.

I'm afraid that if that had been MY wife, that marriage would ended soon after the first gun pointing event.

Maybe he found it exciting----
"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."
Winston Churchill

 

[whittier]

Where I worked in a city just outside of Los Angeles nobody ever took home a black and white unless you were a K9 unit. Almost all of the departments in the surrounding area were the same way. You went up to the front lot 5 minutes before shift change and when the prior shift pulled in with a B&W you just changed places with the driver, checked the lights, siren and shotgun and off you went. The cars ran 24 7 until something broke or they were pulled out for service. The senior guys always got first pick of the cars and the new guys got what was left over. In the 70's we had some really fast Chevy Nova's with 350 CID smallblocks but I only got to drive them a couple of times. If you were in the front lot checking out your car and a senior officer decided he wanted that car he just walked over and made a motion with his thumb and you got out. The Sgt. would be standing there watching but wouldn't do anything because that was the unwritten rule, senior officers get first pick of cars.

 

[S-W4EVER]

sounds like a lock cinch workers comp claim to me.

Should be. Accidents happen.

FWIW, I never unloaded my service weapons either (except to clean). Firearms training was always on a "hot range" so weapons were loaded there too. Too many people have been hurt/killed by an "unloaded" weapon.

 

[kaaskop49]

Should be. Accidents happen.

Too many people have been hurt/killed by an "unloaded" weapon.

Good point. One gunman at a security firm I worked at off-duty reportedly worked with an unloaded revolver. I saw this was true when he worked with me one day. He told the field officer that he did not load his weapon because he didn't want to hurt anyone...

Shortly thereafter, this man was mugged while walking to a job site. The mutts took the airline bag in which he carried his revolver. The firm's gun custodian was not worried: he told me that revolver had a broken firing pin and would not fire...

You can't make this stuff up.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

 

[SS336]

I worked for a small Sheriff's Dept. and we changed at home. I would put on my uniform and duty belt and go to the office in my own vehicle. After the last shift came in you would get one of cars and go out into the county. The only time we put our duty weapon in a lock box was before going into the jail.

This is almost exactly what we did in a small sheriff's dept in rural Colorado in the 80's.
We had to go to a the bigger county next to us with prisoners. The only place we took off our duty guns.

 

[CCantu357]

As Pat Rogers used to say: "Policing is regional". I can recall friends having NYPD officers visit and go on rides. The idea of being 30 minutes away from a call or backup driving fast was truly bizarre to them - most of them worked in precincts in which a request for assistance meant 10-20 cops in a minute or so. One reserve deputy for several hundred square miles? Brain melt.

Speaking of regional differences, the East Coast departments always seem to have a very different administrative structure. Southern and West Coast departments are rather straight forward; the ranks are simple and the badges are the same. Those old East Coast departments seem to have very bureaucratic chain of command; with various Commissioners and Inspectors and almost all ranks have their own shield. My favorite has to be Philadelphia, with their Staff Inspectors. Sounds prestigious!