Where do you guys buy your wepons at?

When you get hired by Collier you have to buy your own pistol, do you have to buy your own shot gun or long gun(AR) as well? how about vest,fashlight,radio? Does anyone know where to get a leo discount on wepons in Collier area or do you send away for them?

YOU are responsible to provide your own pistol, magazines, holster, belt and pouches. CCSO gives you $3,000 to buy these items, so that way you can get the gear you are happy with instead of something you don't like being forced on you.THE AGENCY provides you with every other concievable piece of equipment, including a car filled with jumper cables, first aid kit, blankets, cones, traffic vest, seat caddy (progard) digital camera, print kit, flashlight, stopsticks, locking racks for rifle and shotgun, corner strobes, possibly an AED. You will also get a laptop, a Nextel phone, your body armor which is both stab and bullet resistant, an x-26 taser, a monadnock expandable baton, pepper spray in either 2 or 4 ounce size (your choice). the stuff they give you comes with the belt holders. You will also get 5 brand new uniforms. In fact, except for the car, your M-16 rifle, shotgun and the laptop, EVERYTHING they give you will be brand new.

The training division will give you listing of places that sell guns in the area, but most guys take the drive to Lous Gun Shop in Hialeah (Miami) They seem to have the best prices and they keep most types of belt gear in stock. The majority of the deputies carry Glock pistols, which you can get for around $400 with factory sights. I also see quite a few Sigs, Berettas and HK USPs. CCSO issues you a Remington 870 shotgun and an older model Colt M-16 military rifle modified for semi-auto only. They also authorize personally owned .223 rifles form Bushmaster, Colt, Armalite, Rock River Arms, and DPMS in the AR-15 configuration, or you can carry a Ruger mini-14.
I listed everything I could think of. If you have any other questions, please ask and I am sure someone here will be able to help you.



Good Luck!

Excellent information Old School!! Thanks for taking the time to post. Very informative.

Until you look at it on paper, it is easy to forget how much the agency does provide. Sometimes we take for granted the amount of good equipment, training and opportunity to succeed professionaly and personally with CCSO.

I might only be just a "Road Guy" but damn how I look good doing the job, LOL... 8)

so this question is really premature, but i have the whole process to go through in december, should i be hired and sent to the academy, for the full thing, would i have to provide my own handgun? Since im not technically a graduate or a sheriffs deputy prior to the academy, how would i obtain a handgun, as a citizen? Is the process quick, because in NJ it takes a good 6 - 8 months to obtain the permits.

thanks for you help, again premature questions since i havent even completed the process, but my hopes are up, and the recruiter said there confident i would be offered what i want as long as i ace the interview.

thanks!

NJSHORE
I moved here from NJ 7 years ago and I know how much of a pain it is to get a pistol there. Here in Florida if you have a florida D/L you can buy it and wait 3 days after the back ground call in,then its yours to pick up. If you go to a gun show and take a 2 hour class ,get finger printed,and photographed you can get a conceled carry permit (something NJ will never see) With the carry permit you can walk into any gun show or gun store and walk out with any pistol you want. check out
www.packing.org (http://www.packing.org) and go to florida to see our carry laws and other states that honer our permit.

Thank you for the info that was all the questions I had.Another is how do they determine which section you patrol is it a as needed thing or do they try and put the lee county residents in the north section to save wear tear and miles on the vehicles?

If you don't have your pistol by the time you enter the academy, the academy will provide you with a Glock model 22 .40 for the range. You will still have to get a pistol before your first day of FTO, but you will have some time. Also, it will not matter if you use an academy weapon or your own in the academy, you will need to qualify with your own weapon separately for CCSO records.
As far as where your assigned, they will put you where they need you the most. Most of the new people lately seem to be going to District 2 (Golden Gate) or District 3 (East Naples) with a few going to District 1 (North Naples) The wear and tear you mentioned will be on your pov, since you can't take your patrol unit out of the county to your house. To be honest, this is not the big deal it is sometimes made out to be, if you consider that you can leave your car somewhere near the county line- fire /ems station, CCSO substation, etc... and almost everybody else on the planet in almost every other job has to find their own way to work. In comparison in local law enforcement, Lee County deputies do not get thier own vehicles for 2-3 years and can only take home the car they share with several other deputies on the days they work, inside of Lee County. ....and a number of the cities only allow take home cars in the city limits or not at all....

The purple info paper on what is needed for the academy says the academy provides .38 and 9mm ammuntion only, if there using glock 22's they must give 40cal also. I was going to use my glock 19 9 mm for the academy then buy a 22 or 21 for the street.
CCSO has a very big list of approved calibers and manufactures and seems to give thier dep's a great range of weapons
1-45 colt
2-45 acp
3=44 mag
4-44 special
5-41 mag
6-10mm
7-40 cals/w
8-357 mag
9-38 special
10- 9mm parabellum
11-380 for back up/plainclothes/or off duty


manufacturers
1-Beretta
2-browning
3-colt
4-H/K
5-ruger
6-sig
7-steyr
8-smith wesson
9-walther
10-Glock[/b]

Well im not worried at all about having a handgun in time for the academy! Im also amazed at how easy that is, i carry at work, but had to leave it at work until i finally got my NJ permit which took all of 8 months and millions of forms and tons of paperwork, WOW!


Also, how is the academy with teaching and qualifying. If you go into the academy and have never held or shot a handgun will they teach you everything you know, or would you all suggest taking some courses at a range first? thanks!

Disregard what it says about .38 and 9 mm only for the academy. They will also provide .40 and even .45.
As for the instruction, they specialize in taking people who have never even held a firearm and making them into reasonably competent shooters in the two weeks they are given. I f you listen and do what they tell you, you will qualify.
Having said that, you will NOT walk out of there a great combat shooter. For that you will put in many hours on your own time after the academy. CCSO in-service will provide you with some combat/ movement training, and there are several addtional classes taught at the agency to improve your firearms survival skills. You will also have limited access to the CCSO range on your own, and they will provide you with ammo and targets, as well as instruction (if you ask for it politely ).

Also, the policy on firearms has had some changes. 10 mm has been deleted and is no longer authorizied, and Springfield has been added as a manufacturer- mostly to accomodate the XD model. As for shooting one gun, like a 9mm in the academy, and another ,like a .45 for duty, I don't know about that. For one thing you would be looking at getting two sets of leather, since the guns are different in size and require different holsters. Also, and more importantly, that gun needs to feel like an extension of your hand. The standard frame Glock, like the 17,19,22,23- and the large frame-the 20 and 21- feel completely different, so you would have to adjust to a completely new feel after spending two weeks and a couple of thousand rounds getting comfortable witth one gun. Also, while .45 is a great caliber, a lot of people's hands don't seem to fit the big Glock that well, and as a result they are unhappy with the gun. My advice would be to find the gun you want and stick with it from the start. As for the Glocks, the only difference between the standard frame standard (17-22) and the standard frame compact (19-23) is 1/2 inch of barrel and grip length. with the compact you get two less rounds, basically. The size (circumference) of the grip is EXACTLY the same, so unless your hand is really huge and you need the extra 1/2 inch for your pinky to have a home, get the compact 19 (9mm) or 23 (.40) it is just as accurate as the standard size and as a bonus you will be able to conceal it for off-duty much more easily. While we are on the subject of off-duty (Wow, I should have started a thread just for this firearms thing!) I always like the idea of carrying the same gun on AND off duty. My thinking is this: would I really want to get into some sort of off-duty shooting situation with a lesser (caliber/capacity/sized/quality) off-duty weapon and think to myself" boy, I REALLY wish I had my duty gun right about now" ? Of course not. And neither would you, I am guessing.

Just some food for thought, hope it's helpful!

Oldschool
Thank for the great info now that I know the academy issues 40 cal thats what I will buy for the academy. I just though if I had other then a 9 or 38 i would have to supply my own ammo. I agree the 21 is a huge grip and less rounds then the 22 . Old school a question is it hard to get into the firearms training section at CCSO? I have been shooting for 35 years I will be nra instructor traning cert. in Pistol,rifle, and shotgun

To instruct, you would have to take an 80 hour basic instructor techniques course and then a 40 hour firearms instructor course to meet the Florida Department of Law Enforcement requirements, no matter what previous training you have. Then you will be eligble to work at the range on an as-need basis.
Right now CCSO has a number of instructors working the range like this, and so one of them would have to drop out for them to fit you in. As far as a full time range spot, those spots are full and it doesn't look like they will open up any time soon...that is one of those jobs that once people are in it they tend to stay there forever....

Just curious, how often do you have to qualify at CCSO?

Annually, on an individual basis. They don't drag everybody out on the same day- We have an intra-net based database for everybody's training and qualification and there is a list updated daily of members who are overdue for weapons qual, to include which weapon -pistol, rifle, shotgun they are due on. you can also go online at any time before you think you are due and mark the date, and arrange to qualify anytime before you appear on the overdue list. It places the responsibility on the deputy to get themselves there, but on the other hand it gives the deputy a lot of flexibilty in getting done on their own schedule. The database is pretty slick and makes it easy to arrange your training and sign up for classes. CCSO holds a lot of classes in addition to annual in-service, and all of the classes are free and fairly available to the members on a first-come first served basis. This can be a pretty big deal considering some of the classes offered- this week for instance they are running IPTM's death/ injury investigation course which if you tried to enroll in on your own would have a tuition of about $600 plus your hotel and travel to Jacksonville (about a 6 hour drive) to take the course.
The really cool thing is that barring any major staffing issues or you being the last person on a shift asking for the time, most of the supervisors have no problem letting you go for classes- the agency encourages professional growth.
I only mention all this because at my last agency it was like pulling teeth to get any training, and what you mostly heard was " this doesn't directly relate to your job, so we aren't going to approve you. Mostly it was about supervisors being arbitrary about who gat to go to school. Unfortunately I have heard that its that way at alot of agencies...

Thanks...Here at Miami PD we qualify annually when they schedule us ...Back in the early 80's when I came on the dept. we qualified quarterly...
As far as going to any kind of training class, if you work in uniform patrol, good luck!
Morale at MPD is at rock bottom, visit our site, you'll see!