#DutyPistol

The Glock 17 Gen 5 MOS you see above was my last issued pistol, which I had to give up once I resigned after 15 years with my police department. Of my 21-year career in law enforcement, this was the fourth pistol I was issued, not including my personal Glock 22 I carried on duty for years. Of all the Glocks I’ve carried on duty, this Glock 17 Gen 5 MOS has been my favorite!

In February of this year (2021) after an aggressive marketing campaign, Walther released their new series of striker-fired pistols dubbed the Performance Duty Pistol or PDP. The striker-fired pistol market has become increasingly competitive in recent years, especially in the aftermath of the Army Service Pistol contract that ended up going to the SIG Sauer P320. While SIG won the contract, it was the average consumer that really won out on that competition when every major pistol producer put out their version of the striker-fired duty pistol in the commercial market. It is hard to really batter any of these offerings and the market has turned toward a direction without a singular leader to an environment where purchase decisions are being driven by personal preference over semantic details. With all this market congestion (and admittedly great pistols nearly across the board), Walther seems to have come a bit late to the game with this release. It could be argued that they missed the boat, but with a field this congested, they also have plenty of critique to draw from. So, did Walther make something here that separates it from the pack? Let’s take a look.

New York state’s Lloyd Harbor Police Department has selected the SIG Sauer P320 as its new duty pistol replacing the .40 calibre Glock 23. The chambering of the new SIG duty pistols has not been confirmed. The small Long Island Town of Lloyd Harbor has a police department with 13 officers.

The Department Of Homeland Security, Customs And Border Protection (CBP) has just announced that GLOCK has won an $85M contract to supply the agency with 9mm pistols. The contract for duty handguns is set for a 10 year period and provides other DHS agencies the ability to purchase GLOCK pistols at the contract price.

The County sheriff’s department in Hancock, Maine are making the switch from SIG Sauer to Glock with the department-wide adoption of the Glock 45 in 9x19mm. It follows the recent news that New Hampshire’s Grafton County Sheriff’s Department also selected the new Gen 5 Glock 45 and Glock 17 as their new service pistols.

The Royal Danish Army, Hæren, are reportedly about to embark on trials to replace the venerable SIG P210, which has been in Danish service since 1949.