Yeah, Mayberry PD along with one bullet...🙂

 

 

Interesting question. From what I have found out, most LEA's have transitioned to semi-autos but there are those who use them as a backup piece. We have a few retired LEOs that can answer that question.

 

Last cruise to the carib/central america [5 years ago] there were 2 I recall uniformed officers with revolvers ,many uniformed private guards had what looked like model 10's and a plain clothes excursion guard had a J frame . Going from Haiti to Dominican rep. was night and day [revolvers vs HK and glocks ] , you behaved yourself in italian airports they were bad ass gun carrying dudes , serbian were AK packing but rather very relaxed and glocked up , i was grateful him pointing out the minefields were cleared out years ago some miles away .

 

There's probably some smaller agencies that still issue or at least allow revolvers to be carried. Maybe it's a budgetary thing. I was issued a revolver until the mid-'90s at an agency due to the big boss being completely opposed to self-loading pistols. It wasn't until after he retired before a transition occurred.

Security guard companies may still issue revolvers.

To be honest...when I was a LEO and carried a revolver I never felt underarmed. I figured if I could't solve a problem with eighteen rounds (six in the gun + two speed loaders)...

1) I couldn't hit what I was aiming at so I shouldn't be shooting;
2) the target was behind hard cover and I shouldn't be shooting;
or
3) I was in doo-doo so deep no handgun was going to get me out of it.

In today's world of multiple assailants that might not apply so much...but my primary home defense handgun is a double-action revolver.

 

I found this, undated but I'm guessing it's a few decades old, Trends in Police Handguns, another interesting read here, Legacy: When Cops Carried Revolvers. There are still a few foreign countries that arm their police with revolvers, South Korea uses the Model 10, Japan uses a Model 37 or a copy of it. China issues a Norinco made .38 Special that must be a S&W ripoff, I just don't which one. Chile and Guyana issue the Model 10 or the Taurus clone and a few other latin american countries still arm the police with revolvers.

 

Apparently, the DOC for a couple different states still issues S&W wheel guns:

The Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) issues .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolvers to parole officers in the state of Illinois. Officers must be able to complete firearm training and are required to undergo quarterly training and annual re-qualification.