The New York City Police Department is one of the four largest police organizations in the world and, at three times the size of the next largest, is the biggest agency in the United States. The NYPD employs over 50,000 people to police a population of more than eight million. Although those aren’t all sworn officers, that’s a lot of duty pistols.
NYPD Guns
It’s a massive police department with a long and storied history. As a gun guy, I’ve always been fascinated with the guns issued by police forces, and I’ve been working hard to catalog the firearms issued by the NYPD. Believe it or not, finding a definite source that details all models of NYC service pistols is surprisingly difficult.
Today, I’m attempting to catalog the firearms issued by the NYPD to the best of my ability. It bears mentioning that there are two types of NYPD sidearms: issued and approved. In researching this article, the two were often interwoven, and it was tough to find out what was approved and what was issued.
The department’s sidearms are quite varied, ranging from the average beat cop duty gun to the smaller firearms often carried by detectives and admin staff. I’ve separated the two to make it a bit easier to understand who had what and why.
The Beat Cops
The First Sidearm: The Colt New Police in .32 Colt
Before 1896, NYPD officers had to provide their own firearms for duty. When Theodore Roosevelt became the NYPD Police Commissioner, he pushed for a standardized firearm, the Colt New Police Revolver in .32 Colt. The department’s initial order consisted of 4,500 pistols that were factory stamped New York Police on the backstrap.
This six-shot compact revolver fired a fairly small and somewhat anemic .32 caliber cartridge. However, at that time, the double-action design, hand-ejection, and side-loading cylinder made the Colt New Police very much a (then) modern pistol.
The First .38s: S&W 38 Hand Ejector Model 1905 and Colt Police Positive
In the early 1900s, Colt and S&W began producing .38 caliber revolvers. S&W produced the .38 S&W, and Colt produced the .38 Colt New Police. These were the same cartridge for all practical purposes, but Colt used a flat-nosed bullet for their load.
The NYPD moved to the larger .38 S&W caliber with the S&W .38 Hand Ejector Model 1905 and the Colt Police Positive. Both were traditional double-action revolvers with side-loading cylinders and hand ejectors. The gun served for a fairly short period.
The Classic .38s: The S&W Model 10 and Colt Official Police
The .38 S&W wasn’t a great cartridge and was a bit outdated by the time the NYPD adopted them. The hotter, more powerful .38 Special became the standard cartridge of the NYPD and for police departments around the country.
Alongside the .38 Special, the NYPD adopted the S&W Model 10 and Colt Official Police.
The S&W Model 10 is an evolution of the earlier 1899 Hand Ejector series, which went on to have many names and models. The Colt Official Police was a direct competitor to the Model 10. Both of these revolvers have armed countless police forces for decades. They were six-shot hand ejectors with 4-inch barrels and wood stocks. They represent the classic American police revolver.
Green Lamps: “The watchmen were not issued specific uniforms, but they were required to carry distinguishable accessories, so they could be identified by civilians. Rattles aside, the watchmen stalked the streets with the poles of their green lanterns slung over their shoulders, and they were armed with flintlock muskets and pistols, cudgels, and other weapons. Civilians, for the most part, began to associate the rattles and the green glows of the lanterns, which could be spotted floating around in the pre-streetlight dark of the night like fireflies, with authority. The watchmen clocked in by hanging a separate set of lanterns outside the doors of the watch house. The tradition lives on today, as two emerald-green lamps are mounted on either side of the entrances of all major NYPD police stations, symbolizing the watch’s constant vigilance.” ~ The History and Legacy of the New York Police Department, Charles River Editors
The NY-1s: S&W Model 64, Ruger Police Service-Six, Dan Wesson Model 11
The NYPD still liked the .38 Special cartridge but in the 1970s, wanted to update their revolvers. The Model 10 and Official Police were well-worn and more modern, stronger revolvers were available. The NYPD purchased three revolvers: the S&W Model 64, the Ruger Service-Six, and the Dan Wesson Model 11.
All three of these revolvers were double-action-only models in .38 Special. They represented a more modern revolver with modern durability, and both the Ruger and S&W were stainless guns. The Dan Wesson was a blued model. The Dan Wesson was also the least popular of the three, with the S&W 64 dominating NYPD use. They were all known as the NY-1 revolvers.
Around this same time came the advent of the NYPD’s Department Order SOP 9, introduced by Lt. Frank McGee. SOP 9 was based on one of the first-ever comprehensive studies of officers involved in shootings.
Among other things, that study showed that 70% or more of officers’ armed confrontations occurred outdoors, and that between 70-77% of them occurred in diminished light. This led to the department’s foundational “McGee’s Paradigm”, which showed that typical gunfights involved three shots, in three seconds, at three yards, and recommended a change in training accordingly.
The Early Autos: Glock 19, SIG P226, and S&W 5946
In 1986, the NYPD purchased 200 Gen 1 Glock 17s to test and evaluate, and by 1994, the automatics had taken over. The Gen 2 Glock 19 was selected, as were the S&W 5946 and SIG P226. The S&W and SIG are hammer-fired, while the Glock is striker-fired. The SIG and S&W were converted to DAO, and the Glock 19s fit with atrocious 12-pound triggers.
SIG and S&W’s guns featured metal frames, whereas the Glock 19 featured a polymer frame. All three guns utilized double-stack magazines and chambered the NYPD’s new standard 9mm cartridge. These three guns represented three of the most popular semi-auto pistols in the early 1990s, and even to this day, the Glock remains a popular choice.
The Current Issue: Glock 17 Gen 4
The Glock 17 Gen 4 is currently the primary standard-issue sidearm for new NYPD officers, alongside authorized alternatives. It is a full-sized, striker-fired, polymer-frame pistol. The G17 historically uses 17-round magazines, but the NYPD requested 15-round magazines for the gun. The G17 Gen 4 guns are very modern pistols with rail systems for lights and enhanced ergonomics.
The Glock 17 did use the NY-2 12-pound trigger initially, but as of 2021, they are being issued with standard 5-pound triggers. This breaks over 100 years of 12-pound tradition but also coordinates with higher scores by Academy recruits.
Concealment Options
Detectives, admin staff, and high-ranking police officers often carried smaller, lighter guns that were more appropriate to their daily duties. These days, everyone is issued the Glock, but in the past, numerous small weapons were issued.
The First-Semi-Auto (Ever): Colt M1908
For a very short period of time, New York Detectives were issued the Colt M1908 semi-auto pistol. These guns didn’t last long in duty, and it’s not clear why. These smaller automatics were likely the first automatics ever issued by a police department. The little guns were light and slim, very easy to carry in a plain clothes role.
The Chief’s Special: S&W Model 36
The Model 36 or Chief’s Special was a small frame, five-shot, .38 Special revolver. The weapon received its name via a vote at a 1950 convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), where it was introduced. This small revolver was S&W’s answer to the Colt Detective Special and was extremely popular. The Model 36 served the NYPD for decades.
The Smaller NY-1: S&W Model 60
The S&W Model 60 was adopted to replace the Model 36 as part of the NY-1 series of revolvers. It was a double-action-only gun, and the only real difference between it and the Model 36 was the stainless steel finish and DAO design.
The Last Revolver: S&W 640
The last revolver issued by the NYPD was the S&W model 640. This double-action-only, five-shot revolver featured a concealed hammer and stainless steel finish. Much like the previous S&W revolvers, it was issued to admin staff and plainclothes police.
Police officer Walter Weaver carried a 640 as his backup gun on September 11th, 2001, where he heroically assisted in evacuating the World Trade Center. He was last seen on the 6th floor of the North Tower using the Jaws of Life to free victims trapped in an elevator, tragically losing his life when the tower collapsed. Recovery teams located his sidearm at Ground Zero weeks later. His family graciously donated the preserved revolver to the National Firearms Museum, where it remains on display today in his honor.
The Modern NYPD
The NYPD currently issues the Glock 17 Gen 4 as its general-use service pistol, but there are still various Glock 19s, SIG P226S, and S&W 5946s out there.
In 2016, the NYPD wanted to improve its holster selection and replaced its aging line of holsters with the Safariland 6360. This move modernized the NYPD’s holsters and added an entirely new level of safety for officers by increasing retention and protecting their sidearms.
Quite a collection, isn’t it? And keep in mind, those examples are just the widely issued NYPD guns. There were definitely exceptions and “unauthorized” substitutions, backup guns, guns for the so-called “New York Reload,” and more. And we didn’t even touch their long guns.
Over the years, the choice of NYPD guns — and duty holsters — has changed and evolved to keep up with the times. It will be interesting to see what comes next.
