It’s been a while since I read the book on Glock history, but my memory is that before Glocks many police departments used double action revolvers (S&W 29s for a common example). This lead to police habitually resting their fingers on the triggers. Bad habit, but they got away with it because of the ultra heavy triggers.
When departments switched to Glocks there were a rash of negligent discharges as police kept putting their fingers on the much lighter trigger. One incident in particular where a cop shot a suspect because of this. Despite it being a training issue, many departments became wary of Glocks, so adjustments like the NYPD trigger were born as a way to placate the issue.
Well, you’re definitely correct about many PDs using revolvers before switching to Glocks. That goes back to the Miami shootout with the FBI; FBI agents were still using revolvers at the time, and they were significantly outgunned b/c one of the suspects was armed with a Ruger Mini-14 rifle. As a result, the FBI started looking for a better sidearm, and the initially settled on 10mm before adopting the .40S&W. Glock managed to bring a .40S&W pistol to market before Smith & Wesson did (!!!), and then charged below cost for PDs in order to convince them to adopt the then-new firearm.
It’s been a while since I read the book on Glock history, but my memory is that before Glocks many police departments used double action revolvers (S&W 29s for a common example). This lead to police habitually resting their fingers on the triggers. Bad habit, but they got away with it because of the ultra heavy triggers.
When departments switched to Glocks there were a rash of negligent discharges as police kept putting their fingers on the much lighter trigger. One incident in particular where a cop shot a suspect because of this. Despite it being a training issue, many departments became wary of Glocks, so adjustments like the NYPD trigger were born as a way to placate the issue.
Well, you’re definitely correct about many PDs using revolvers before switching to Glocks. That goes back to the Miami shootout with the FBI; FBI agents were still using revolvers at the time, and they were significantly outgunned b/c one of the suspects was armed with a Ruger Mini-14 rifle. As a result, the FBI started looking for a better sidearm, and the initially settled on 10mm before adopting the .40S&W. Glock managed to bring a .40S&W pistol to market before Smith & Wesson did (!!!), and then charged below cost for PDs in order to convince them to adopt the then-new firearm.
And after finding an article about it, it looks like the NYPD did want to match the pull of their old double-action service revolvers. Which is nuts.