U.S. Police Officers' Weapons History

Until the 1960s, most U.S. police officers carried six-round .38 special handguns for their sidearms.

From the late 1960s to the late 1990s, most police departments issued shotguns to their officers, often stored in the trunks of squad cars.

In the 1980s, an incident involving FBI agents and bank robbers led to the questioning of the utility of .38 caliber revolvers.

In the April 11, 1986 incident, two FBI agents were killed while using .38 caliber revolvers against suspects armed with Mini-14 rifles.

The subsequent FBI investigation attributed the agents' deaths in part to the lack of stopping power of the .38 caliber rounds and the difficulty of reloading revolvers under fire.

In response, the FBI mandated that all agents be armed with semi-automatic handguns chambered for larger caliber rounds.

In the late 1990s, an incident in North Hollywood, California, involving heavily armed bank robbers and the Los Angeles Police Department, led to the adoption of semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns by some police departments.

The North Hollywood shootout on February 28, 1997, saw the robbers firing over 200 rounds and wearing body armor, making standard police weapons ineffective.

The robbers, Larry Phillips, Jr. and Emil Matasareanu, were eventually killed after an extended shootout, leaving 11 police officers and 7 civilians wounded and nearly 2,000 rounds fired.

The inability of standard police weapons to penetrate the robbers' body armor led to the adoption of semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns by some departments for use against heavily armed suspects.

The Heckler and Koch MP5, a 9mm submachine gun, became the most popular choice for many departments due to its light weight, air cooling, and magazine capacity.

Shotguns have a range of 30 yards with buckshot and 50-100 yards with slugs, pistols are useful only within 25 yards, and semi-automatic rifles or submachine guns have a useful range of about 50 yards.

In a shootout with heavily armed suspects, the best weapon is a .223 caliber rifle, which is accurate to over 100 yards.

The Community Oriented Policing Services Office (COPS) offers grants to help law enforcement agencies hire community policing officers, acquire new technologies and equipment, hire civilians for administrative tasks, and promote innovative approaches to solving crime.

In 2012, the Office of Justice Programs solicited grant proposals for various programs, including drug courts, violence reduction, and policing.

The policing grants are awarded from the Edward Byrne Memorial Assistance Program. In 2012, the program awarded 1,128 grants, totaling $93,677,129. In fiscal year 2016, the program awarded 1,011 grants, totaling $84,348,558.

In 2010, the New York City Police Department had approximately 34,565 officers and over 23,000,000 contacts with civilians. Of these contacts, 206,874 involved a weapon. There were 28,880 people using, displaying, or possessing a weapon who were arrested. Of these, 6,021 were for gun possession.

In 2010, there were 1,473 citizen-upon-citizen criminal shooting incidents. However, only 52 officers intentionally fired their weapons at another person during an "adversarial conflict." These incidents resulted in eight civilian deaths and 16 injuries.

Of the 33 shooting incidents in 2010, 56% of civilians involved were black, 26% were Hispanic, 15% were white, and 6% were Asian. Blacks and Hispanics represented 52% of the population in the city.

In 2010, 65% of New York City Police Department's shootings occurred within ten feet of the subject. Of 334 civilians involved in adversarial shootings, 56% were black.

The New York City Police Department responded to approximately 4.5 million calls for service in 2010. Of these, 206,874 involved weapons, and 52 officers discharged their weapons. This represents .15% of all calls, indicating that the police department acted with restraint.

Police departments are sometimes criticized for being "little armies" at war with their citizens, leading to excessive use of force. However, data from the New York City Police Department's Annual Firearms Discharge Report for 2010 shows that only a small percentage of officers discharge their weapons during adversarial conflicts.

Some critics have claimed that police officers carry M4 and M16 rifles on patrol, but this is not true. Police firearms have evolved over time, and officers carry various types of firearms for different situations.