Anyone have any further details?:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/iowa-agency-returns-800-handguns-183857912.html
No info, but kudos to the administrator:
DPS Commissioner Roxann Ryan told employees last month to turn in their newly issued handguns after some officers raised concerns about the weapons’ functionality. The department hasn’t clarified its concerns, but Ryan told employees she took them seriously because they implicated the safety of the officers and the public.
Well over a decade ago Wichita PD purchased DAO HK pistols for issue. IIRC they phased the weapon in by issuing it the first recruit class after the purchase. Dubbed the ‘random shooter’ by that class, the pistol had FTF problems. HK contributed it to hard primers, WPD changed ammo no fix. I was at an HK ITD Course at the WPD range when HK flew in engineers from the all over to look at the problem, apparently Chris Sheppard (ITD) was adamant in letting them know of the problems. IDK if the problems were actually resolved but the troops had lost faith in the pistol and they were quickly replaced by Glock 22’s.
Fast forward another decade and folks began to realize that .40 wasn’t that much superior (if any) to 9mm. Unsure what transpired but WPD jumped from the Glock 22 to the M&P 9. There was a lot of grumbling within the circle of officers I knew about this being simply the new rangemaster’s preference. Those weapons had magazine problems and were quickly replaced by Glock 17’s.
Those actions took place under different Chiefs and have always impressed me as being responsive to the troops.
What I’d be interested in knowing is whether there were actual operational issues, or the unrest was fueled by internet stories, or simply guys that wanted a different weapon.
It seems to me that yanking the first request for bids and then reissuing a second request with the addition of a magazine safety requirement smacks of somebody wanting to make sure their favorite pistol got the bid. I’d guess that what is being examined is whether that ‘favorite pistol’ status was a result of rational thought, or a result of paid trips to the Bahamas.
JMO
Ah, yes, the old “Ford versus Chevy” wrangling from my long-lost youth. The world is a schoolyard without adult supervision.
Whatever the traffic cop used in Garland TX would seem sufficient.
A Glock 21, I read. Double kudos to him as that is a most UNergonomic pistol; akin to gripping a brick!
Atlanta PD dumped their M&Ps as well and went to Glock.
I work there and have no idea. The RFP investigation and the guns that were returned seem to be two separate issues. Nobody really knows what’s up. We do need some new guns through, mine has long since passed its finest days.
That would be a Glock 21 according to the news reports
Those of us with Wookie paws can handle them fine, now the HK MK23 is another matter.
Why would you quote that piece? That was editorial garbage.
This is not the Garland TX thread.
It is a good sign that DPS Commissioner Roxann Ryan cares enough about her employees that she took the steps she did. It also sounds like she runs a tight ship, which is refreshing.
It is not likely we will hear anything from Iowa DPS. If anyone else receives a new service bulletin concerning changes to the S&W pistols in question, it would be greatly appreciated if you would post it here.
Ok so a few of the issues being faced on their M&P pistols. Frame cracks, mags not dropping free, mags dropping free on their own, slides not locking back, and the slide finish degrading. There we also reports of a few trigger issues but seemed to be pretty few and far between. So all pistols were turned back in old ones issued and Troopers had to qualify again due to a new(old) pistol being issued back to each Trooper. After speaking with some of the armorers and instructors of the first 200 pistols that were put through testing only 20 passed with no issues. So they still have several hundred to go through and identify as malfunctioning and problematic pistols.
There is a good ol’ boy club that most Troops out of the capital would like to see broken up, two majors and a Lt were suspended after the Commissioner dropped the ax on this ordeal. ISP has always in its 80 some year history had Smith and Wesson weapons, even after the first year of the M&P rifles having out of spec uppers and some other issues in the past.
There was also a problem with the procurement process of the pistol, it did not win the competition between the other competitors and only won after the specs were changed to a gun that would not fire without a magazine inserted, all other competitors did not offer this feature. So after Smith and Wesson lost the parameters were changed to allow them to win.
The glock had approximately 85% in the testing and would have been chosen. But Smith came in and offered new guns for free with the turn in of the old M&P’s. Now this does lead to not having to change holsters or mag pouches. Glock came in with an offer of the Gen 4 22 and either a 42 or 43 for each officer as well. But this would lead to new holsters and mag pouches. however the cost for pouches and holsters is pretty low in the scheme of new weapons.
Since S&W has had embarrassing quality control issues with its M&P pistols, you would think that the company would avoid such fiascos by providing close scrutiny final inspections for the l.e. line. This strategy would be much less costly in several ways.
+10…