Elmhurst, Illinois P.D. comes to mind as an early user of S&W semi-autos. Obviously not as early as Illinois State Police. I do recall Germantown, Wisconsin P.D. as being one of the first departments in Wisconsin to use S&W semi-autos. As a new cop I was in awe of the officers who were issued or authorized to carry semi-autos, while I was always seemingly stuck with a revolver. Semi-autos always seemed like the way to go in a fast changing threat environment. Unfortunately the departments I worked on always seemed to be rutted in tradition with little to no thought of officer safety given. It wasn't until well into the 80's that my career department made the move begrudgingly to semi-autos and even then it was the cheapest pistol they could purchase. To complicate things even more the pistol we selected was so new that no one made a specific holster for it. In a knee-jerk reaction they purchased holsters that "almost" fit and had armorers and range officers open up the holsters with batons so the pistols would fit into them. It was not a stellar moment for my old agency.
Rick H.
Rick H.
