For a brief second I thought it was a photo from the day the lieutenants were fired from my job! sdb, what academy were you at in 1981? I went to Somerville and they couldn't afford aprons. However there was a kid they had caught breaking into a cops car two days before and he sort of limped back and forth between us handing us rounds as we needed them. If he was slow, the instructor would yell something like, "Hey you, that was MY car." and the kid would pick up the pace hobbling like he was being chased by a BIG german shepherd.(We did our shooting at Camp Curtis Guild.) He'd fall, drop several rounds and then scramble back to his feet yelling, "NOT AGAIN, PLEASE, NOT AGAIN!" We were never really sure what he meant. Entertaining AND instructional!
I was in the New Bedford academy on the third floor of the old HQ at 25 Spring St. They didn't give aprons either but they let us use them if we wanted to bring our own. But they wouldn't authorize speedloaders. Go figure.
Speedloaders? I didn't get those until around 1983. It was dump pouches for us until then. Twelve rounds of pure .38 cal pleasure. As far as the carpenter pouches, our academy director/firearms instructor would have made us be targets if we brought those to the range. BTW, our range was next to the Stoneham Zoo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My original speedloader pouches were horrible. Not so much pouches but just a pouch like thing that was SUPPOSED to keep the speedloader sitting on your belt. I tossed them into my locker and never used them again. I got sick and tired of pushing the loaders back on the belt so they wouldn't fall on the ground. Total crap equipment.
That was the Safariland pouch. The HKS pouches were true pouches, with the silver metal snaps and the loaders not touching the belt.
We didn't have that problem, because not only weren't speed loaders issued, they weren't allowed. We had to carry them in our jacket pocket and pretend that all we had was the six loop belt slide. Some day I'll tell a story about a town near me that at one time mandated everybody carry exactly the same equipment in exactly the same position on the belt, in the name of uniformity. Everybody had to carry Don Hume holsters with the old strap retention system on their right hip. Even the left handed cops. You really can't make this stuff up.
With the exception of mirroring left / right handed setups, there's agencies out there that prescribe what will be carried where.
scary shit. Second floor of the Somerville PD HQ in Union Square. First day in there was no heat so from that day on we all pretty much wore sweaters and jackets every day.
Oh I get that some places want to tell you where to put what on your belt. That's not that big a deal. I was pointing out the extreme where this place made left handers carry in a right handed holster so that everyone would look uniform. That's just nucking futs.
I was determined to make my gunbelt last as long as possible. Even though I had picked up a new one about 5 years ago, I was DETERMINED to keep on keepin' on. That belt lasted 25 years. It was beat up, needed polish but it fit and it did what it was supposed to do. Then I worked ONE stinking detail in heavy rain (not the first, but the last for the belt). I was soaked to the skin despite the raincoat (which did almost nothing that day) and I had to go with the new belt. The new belt, after almost 2 1/2 years is falling apart. They don't make 'em like they used to.... and that's true for cops as well. (I did keep the buckle from the old belt and I'm still using that.)
It's funny the stuff we attach sentimental value to. I'm still carrying my first set of cuffs marked up from my first department. I also carry a call box key that my grandfather used, even though call boxes were gone twenty years before I started.
I still have my first set of cuffs....they've been on people from drunk bum PC's to murderers, and almost everything in-between. If my son (or daughter) is stupid enough to follow in my footsteps, I want to hand them down some day. We were probably the last department in MA to use call boxes, they were used well into the late 1980's. There is still one next to city hall......it's empty, but the box itself is still there.
When I was an AUX is Newton, the call boxed could still be found around town. Not sure if they are still there but it wasn't that long ago. Note: they were not in use!
Had to ring in (call in) on one of the boxes every hour on last halfs. Most of the time you would use some wise remark when you called in. Bravo 2 I'm alive, give me a ringy diny or some other dumb comment. The poor operator had to put up with us.
We had to hit a box once an hour on all 3 shifts and you had better not hit the same box twice. I remember hot footing it to the far reaches of my route just to hit a box so I wouldn't have any duplicates. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
One of our guys once was overheard complaining about manpower shortages on my shift and the term "officer safety" was used. BIG MISTAKE. To make us safer the chief instituted hourly radio checks on the 1/2 hour starting at 0230 ending at 0630. A clever person could not move one inch and call in different locations each time and be telling the truth! First you use the building name you're next to. Then the one you're across from. Then the street name. Then the cross street close by, etc. I felt much safer doing this. We finally stopped (when the chief felt we had been punished enough) and now I feel in peril! Of course, if he ever saw this post, we'd be right back at it...for OUR benefit, of course.
