I agree with so much as what has been said in this thread. Civilians and police officers carry firearms differently. The civilian wants a smaller firearm for concealment; the police officer carries his/her’s openly and therefor can carry a larger and more powerful caliber.
When I retired as a Leo firearms instructor in 2015, the push was already on to switch back to the 9mm. At that time we carried the Sig 229 in 40 S&W. The heavier aluminum frame helped with recoil management. But, we we already hearing simply silly things from the Budget bean counters that “well you know ammo is getting cheaper.” Funny, but they did not like to be corrected. Yes, the 40 was simply more expensive than the 9mm.
The Maryland police and Training Academy sets the minimum standards for all Agencies in Maryland. They mandated 40 hours and a minimum of 800 rounds fired. Myself and the other firearms staff were ex tactical/swat guys and we took our training very seriously. The end result was just over three weeks of training and six to eight thousand rounds per student.
Gone were the height and weight requirements. In one case we had a young female who probably weighed 105 pounds, and was not strong enough to hold the firearms out in front of her for any length of time.
During the first day of the academy, all students were tested with a blue firearm ( same as what they would carry but rendered safe) to do fifty trigger presses left and right handed. The purpose was to identify those students who were weak in this area, then provide them with a mock pistol for them to practice with to help them develop the strength needed to qualify by the time they entered their firearms training.
The same candidate mentioned, by the time we got her in firearms training, had to use two fingers to fire her handgun weak handed. Our supervisor made excuses for her and did not want to listen to the trainers who said she would be a liability if hired. Worse, to help the small stature recruits that had anticipation problems, he began offering them the 229 chambered in the 9mm.
I’m sure the seasoned shooters here can see the blatant problem with having the same firearm issued in two different calibers put out on the streets. Worse, some of the veterans who qualified regularly but were marginal, also asked for a 229 in 9mm. The supervisor refused, stating that it was his decision on a case by case basis.
I argued that now he had liability for allowing some shooter to have the smaller caliber to promote better scores while disallowing it for others. I was basically told to shut my mouth. I felt sorry for my supervisor, he was a long time friend of mine from our swat days, that now he was being forced to lower standards to meet quotas. I was just out of the academy in 1979 and was with my Training Officer on our second night of 3 to 11. That day my partner was shot through the shoulder and lung with a 12 guage slug. The next one caught in in my gun hand. When I woke up after being flown to Shock Trauma, the nurse was happy to inform me that I still had a hand and that they didn’t have to cut it off.
I was out for two years, through therapy five days a week and five more operations. I pray for the men and women every day and I am grateful to be retired after thirty-six years of service. I took the training very seriously for the recruits, I knew what could be awaiting them on the streets, and I was never willing to compromise good and proper training just to check off recruitment achievement blocks.