Houston Police Dept. Approves Red Dot Sights for Duty Use

BillD

BillD

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05 July 2018 - In what may be the largest adoption of red dot sights on pistols to date, the Houston Police Department has issued a letter to sworn officers approving the optics for duty use. The approval comes along with some common-sense caveats; a Safariland level III Holster must be used, optics-ready pistols from specified manufacturers and the completion of an eight hour training course prior to putting the RDS into service.

Along with the details of the approved manufacturers comes an important stipulation: milled slides are not allowed. Personnel must buy a factory-ready gun capable of accepting red dot sights. In addition, officers must have back up iron sights installed either in the form of suppressor height sights or the Leupold’s rear sight attachment.

The move towards the use of micro red dot sights by military and law enforcement has been gaining steam in the past few years with special teams and units being allowed to field the technology on a more case-by-case process. With more than 5,000 officers on staff Houston PD is set to take the lead on electronic sight use in U.S. law enforcement


More at link>> The Firearm Blog: Houston PD Pistol Red Dot Sights Approved For Duty Use
 
Forgive my ignorance but what is typical battery life of those small type pistol mounted RDS's? I know you can get some very respectable time out of their full size cousins in the terms of months. But their batteries are much larger capacity.
 
Battery life is not an issue, my issue is going from a 20c car to +40c outside with humidity. Iron sights never fog up or get obscured by rain.
 
JungerJager said:
Its the way of the future, this will one day be looked at the same as the change from wheel guns to Semi Auto service pistols!
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So, i'm curious..... How is the change from wheelguns to semi-auto service guns looked at?

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NAA.
 
MRDS on handguns are the way of the future... Not only that, they are also awesome for aging, post-cataract eyes! So far I am fielding 7 x Trijicon LED RMRs, 1 X Vortex Razor, 1 X Burris Fastfire 3 (not pictured) and 1 Holosun MRDS (not pictured), on my personal handguns with more to follow:


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Bartok5 said:
MRDS on handguns are the way of the future... Not only that, they are also awesome for aging, post-cataract eyes! So far I am fielding 7 x Trijicon LED RMRs, 1 X Vortex Razor, 1 X Burris Fastfire 3 (not pictured) and 1 Holosun MRDS (not pictured), on my personal handguns with more to follow:


2pzfz1c.jpg
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Damn that's a lot of money spent on lights and sights! Lol nice collection though!
 
Dsiwy said:
Battery life is not an issue, my issue is going from a 20c car to +40c outside with humidity. Iron sights never fog up or get obscured by rain.
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Curious about that too. Never tried a RDS on a pistol in the rain.

Scenario: pissing rain, cop advancing to a position in low ready, with the optic area catching water like a small cup....
 
jimbo14 said:
Curious about that too. Never tried a RDS on a pistol in the rain.

Scenario: pissing rain, cop advancing to a position in low ready, with the optic area catching water like a small cup....
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Even if the MRDS is opstructed by condensation / water / mud - you can still get good positive hits on target, have demo’s this numerous times by totally obstructing MRDS/RDS & as long as both eyes are open you will get good hits

“Human vision is based upon a binocular (two eyes) presentation of visual evidence to the brain. The word binocular literally means using both eyes at the same time. We most often associate this word with binocular instruments such as field glasses or a binocular microscope. These instruments specifically strive to present the object to be viewed the same way to both eyes.” *stolen from trijicon*

gadget
 
Lets see one of the main advantages put forward is the Optic sight is great for ageing eyes. I would think and hope that would be just about the least issue Police Departments have. ie folks with ageing eyes.

I like the optic on my PPQ but it is coming off for this years competitions I plan to shoot. Sorry guys but it is to damn slow. It takes practice to get used to controlling the sight and I am not there yet. Young guys with decent eyes at defensive ranges are going to be way faster with irons. We are not talking bulls eye shooting. Hitting a man sized chest at 7 yards does not call for pin point accuracy either. Lots of hype here. The Pros and writers can beat the drums but RDS sights are not for everyone.

The Red Dot is a great tool and hitting a plate at 100 yards slow fire off a bench is not nearly as challenging as it is with irons. Using RDS hitting tin cans at 15 yards is a blast, one at a time, slowly, but for fast acquisition and transitions on a bright sunny day...it takes practice and can be a real challenge for follow up shots. More than some here may think.

Take Care

Bob
 
I agree^^

Tried it. Loved it but can’t spend the time now to get used to it.

It’s hard to transition quickly between targets with the RDS. Even if you do the “ eyes before gun” properly, the dot overshoots and jiggles too much for me to trust myself. I’m sure a ton of practice will make it easier.

Right now, a good bright FO is way easier to use at competition distances IMO. YMMV.
 
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