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The Los Angeles Police Department was a Smith & Wesson department when I entered the Academy in 1984. An occasional Colt would be seen (mostly Detective Specials or Cobras used as backups or off duty), but the K-frame .38 Smith & Wesson reigned supreme as the LAPD weapon of choice.

Tradition ended--probably forever--when the Los Angeles Police Department went to 9mm semiautos in 1987 as an optional purchase. While S&W autos were also authorized, the majority of officers opted to go with the Beretta 92. The LAPD embraced the foreign-designed pistol enthusiastically and instituted a ground-breaking three-day "gunfighter" school to familiarize officers with semiautos. Legendary pistolero and instructor John Pride pulled me out of my patrol assignment and gave me a job at the Academy teaching speed-reloading, malfunction clearing and advanced marksmanship. Our little band of 9mm Transition Instructors trained almost 5,000 L.A. coppers in pistol fighting in the two years I was there.

Unlike most big-city departments, the LAPD has always allowed officers an extraordinary amount of leeway in choosing a duty weapon. While the Glock 22 .40 caliber is now issued to recruits, the Beretta 92 in 9mm is still seen in many holsters in L.A. Once off probation, officers may choose to purchase another duty pistol from an approved list of handguns in 9mm, .40 or .45. Authorized manufacturers are Glock, Smith & Wesson and Beretta. Officers must qualify monthly with the new pistol. Live-fire exercises and scenarios are also incorporated into additional in-service training, usually quarterly. The LAPD shoots a lot of ammo--more than any other big-city department (NYPD officers qualify once yearly). Detectives are also required to qualify and must carry a full-size sidearm, but they have more choices in pistols than uniformed personnel.

The LAPD semiauto revolution has left behind some superb revolvers. Colt .45 revolvers were authorized in the 1920s and '30s and made Los Angeles the wrong city to visit if violence was on the agenda. Up until the mid-'70s, the six-inch S&W K-38 was the classic LAPD revolver. Carried in a low-slung, spit-shined "clamshell" holster and wearing Farrant or Hurst stocks, the K-38 was the best-looking, most accurate, easiest-shooting cop gun around. Blued four-inch .38s replaced the sometimes unwieldy six-incher (some six-inch guns were cut to four inches and reissued also) until stainless steel made its debut in the early 1980s. My "neutered" (LAPD slang for double-action only) stainless 67 S&W came equipped with Hogue finger-groove stocks that I immediately replaced with Pachmayr rubber grips, purchased at the old Pachmayr gun store in downtown L.A. I carried it in a custom high-ride Hoyt breakfront that was fast, secure and, above all, totally cool-looking. A two-inch stainless S&W Bodyguard rode in my rear pocket as backup. I later carried a succession of four- and six-inch stainless or blue revolvers until switching over to autos.