Kicking around a book idea. 1950s-1970s LEO weapons

[jtcarm]

I can tell you that I had a Motorola Miniature(Walkie Talkie) that was the size of a brick and just as heavy on my left hip. That radio did a fair job of balancing the weight of my 4" revolver on my right hip.

I had a Sergeant that would kick my slats if he caught me without my lid on. He also hated night stick rings on your gun belt. Gawd forbid if he ever rolled by a traffic stop to check on you and you didn't have your lid on and night stick tucked under your left arm.

You could always tell coppers who were lucky enough to walk a beat because they would wear stuff on the backside of their gun belts. My handcuff case was also on my left side and two double dump ammo pouch on my right, just in front of my holster.

When I was promoted to my own foot beat I learned how to control space around me by twirling my night stick. As soon as I made the walking crew I went and had a rosewood stick that was 22 inches long with German silver tips. It was perfectly balanced by an old guy who turned them out on a lathe. He wouldn't make one for the scout car guys, just us street walkers.

I learned how to signal the guy on the beat next to me. He would tap his stick against the side of the mailbox.....remember mailboxes? We also had cast iron light poles and believe it or not, each one had a little different ring tone when tapped with that silver tipped stick.

My stick was used to touch anything (or anyone) who I didn't want to put my hand on. You can really light up somebody with a rap to the shins and you can deflate the biggest hot air balloon with a jab to the sternum.

I never stood in front of a door I had to knock on. I used my stick to rap on the door while I stood just a shotgun blast to the side.

When I was in a scout car in the public housing projects my fear was roof top snipers. Once I got on that foot beat it was crowds of the congested downtown streets. That is where swinging and spinning that stick kept people back from me. Crosswalks? man, I hated to cross the street in front of stopped traffic.

At 5pm all of the pretty girls came down out of those office buildings and I had to swing traffic in a busy intersection for an hour every afternoon. Yeah, whistle, white gloves.....and by Gawd, that nightstick under my arm the whole time.

I'm sorry, not much there to help you in a rural police setting. Oh wait, maybe you could throw in something about badge bunnys.....no, probably not.

Whew, man, rosewood pretty dang dense. That thing must've been a skull-cracker.

And pretty to boot.

 

[lawandorder]

Pretty common rifle with Officers in the south and I imagine elsewhere

......across the county was the Winchester Model 1907 .351.

Interesting article about this rifle,;

The Original Cop Rifle: Winchester 351 WSL | Gun World Magazine

 

[UncleEd]

As to Barney Fife and his one shirt pocket cartridge,
in one episode he and Andy went on lookout for
night time bank burglars. And Andy opened one
of his dump punches and handed Barney six. What
a surprised and happy look Barney had.

 

[CapnB]

Before the advent of portable radios, many police departments used call boxes and signaling devices like a klaxon or siren. The klaxon would go off and the beat walker would go to the nearest call box, open it with his big brass key, and talk to the dispatcher on a hot-line phone. The call boxes in our old core business district were still operational when I signed on. We used them when we didn't want sensitive info going out over the radio. It was the early 80's before portable radios became widely used in my part of the country. When you were away from the car, you were on your own. Plus one for the 4" or 5" military and police models for the 1950's. All of the departments in our area required 4" solid frame revolvers of American manufacture. I know of no agency in the State of Washington which allowed a 1911 on duty. Why? I have no personal experience or knowledge, but I suspect for reasons that have been beaten to death on this and many other firearms forums.