What modifications do the major police departments do? None of ours are modified in any way.
SGT127 they put a heavier trigger spring in. Normally close to that of a revolver's pull.
I can appreciate your concern sir. If you do a web search on Glock accidental discharges you'll find numerous accounts. Some below are listed.
Thanks for asking.
New York Trigger
A “New York trigger” is a trigger on guns to make it harder to fire. This was intended to cut down on accidental shootings. A “New York trigger” is harder to pull because it’s heavier than other triggers. The term began with the Glock.
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14 July 1991, Boston Globe:
“There was conversation about it being a `New York trigger,’ that it fired too easily,” said McGee, making a reference to troubles that police in New York City have had with faulty firing mechanisms in 9mm handguns.
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11 March 1999, Memphis (TN) Commercial Appeal, pg. B1:
Dobbins agreed with the defense attorneys who contended that the Glock model 22 Nichelson had requires considerably less pressure to pull the trigger than some other service weapons and that some other police departments have modified the pistol with a so-called “New York trigger” to make it harder to fire. It wasn’t known if the Millington Police Department uses the device.
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8 June 1999, The Record (Northern New Jersey), pg. L16:
The Glock is available with various trigger bars that set the pressure necessary to activate the trigger at between 4 and 12 pounds of pressure; many competition firearms have 2- to 3.5-pound trigger pulls. When it decided on the Glock, New York City requested a device that has become known as the “New York trigger,” making the trigger require approximately 12 pounds of pressure. This is about the amount of pressure required to activate the trigger on a revolver. In short, the only way to fire a Glock is to pull the trigger.
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Sheriff's Deputy Accidentally Shoots Self, Other Officer
Local 6 TV - WKMG (Fla) ^ | 3/28/05 | n/a
Posted on 03/29/2005 8:38:34 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
POSTED: 5:53 pm EST March 28, 2005
UPDATED: 6:05 pm EST March 28, 2005
Two sheriff's deputies in Lake County, Fla., were shot and injured when an officer's gun accidentally discharged while training, according to a Lake County Sheriff's Office release.
The report said Deputy Jason Williams accidentally discharged a department issued Glock handgun at the Lake Tech Institute of Public Safety Driving & Firearms Range.
The discharged bullet struck deputy Williams in the hand and then struck Deputy Sheriff Richard Light in the lower leg, the report said.
The injuries are not life-threating and both officers were transported to Florida Hospital Waterman for treatment.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, according to the report.
The Diallo Index
by Ward Harkavy
February 9 - 15, 2000 alert me by e-mail
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Minimum number of feet a Glock bullet travels in one second (unless it strikes an object or a person): 1148
Glock semiautomatic pistols manufactured before 1983: 0
Glock semiautomatic pistols sold in the United States between 1983 and 1996: 1.2 million
Number of Glocks sold per month in 1995: 20,000
Share of U.S. law-enforcement market Glock had in 1984: 0
Percentage of U.S. law-enforcement market Glock had in 1997: 60-65
Accidental discharges of Glocks by District of Columbia police during the decade beginning in 1988: 120+
D.C. police who accidentally shot themselves or others in the same period: 19
Number of years starting in 1988 that firearms experts warned D.C. police officials about the Glock's "light trigger" and its propensity to fire an unintentional shot when handled incorrectly: 10
Year that the FBI gave Glock low marks for safety and cited a "high potential for unintentional shots": 1988
Year NYPD modified Glock triggers to require a more forceful finger tug to fire them: 1990
Number of months pregnant an Asbury Park, New Jersey, cop's girlfriend was when he accidentally shot her in January 1997 while unloading his Glock 9mm handgun in their bedroom: 7
Millions of dollars in total expenditures by the New York Police Department in 1998: 2399
Dollars a D.C. detective was ordered to pay a fellow detective for accidentally shooting him in the stomach with a Glock inside police headquarters: 880,000
Number of dollars D.C. taxpayers spent on 4300 Glock semiautomatic pistols: 1,000,000
Estimated number of Glock semiautomatic handguns issued to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation law-enforcement officers and later sold at a profit by individual officers to outsiders: 700
Top police gun prone to accidental firing
But Glock gags those who have settled suits
By Melvin Claxton / The Detroit News
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When police Officer Randall Smith was accidentally shot in the head by a fellow officer with a Glock semiautomatic pistol in 1995, he sued the gun maker, claiming the weapon was defectively designed and unnecessarily dangerous.
Glock settled the lawsuit. But for the rest of his life, Smith, whose injuries left him permanently brain damaged and cost him his police job in Birmingham, Ala., is barred from talking about the case or revealing any details he learned about Glock before the settlement. His lawyer also is barred from talking, restricted by a confidentiality agreement that is a standard policy for Glock when settling lawsuits.
Glock’s and other gun manufacturers’ insistence on confidentiality agreements is common in product liability settlements. The agreements have kept critical information about the safety record of the gun from the public and are a prime example of how the gun industry actively conceals information about injuries and fatalities connected with its products. The industry has done so with the help of Congress and the powerful National Rifle Association lobby.
Like other gun makers, Glock is not required to report complaints and injuries to any federal or state agency. And Glock cannot be compelled to inform gun buyers of problems others have had with its weapons.
The News documented more than 50 lawsuits against Glock in the past eight years. In those with confirmed settlements, Glock insisted on confidentiality agreements.
Despite the agreements, Glock pistols, the weapon of choice for more than half the nation’s police departments, have earned a reputation among some gun experts as a firearm with too few safety features and that is too quick to fire. Its reputation is directly linked to its design, which ignores important safety features.
The no-frills, lightweight polymer-frame semiautomatic pistol forces the user to handle the gun with extreme caution. The Glock will fire if the trigger is moved less than a half an inch, compared to twice that distance for most other police guns.
And some Glocks will shoot with as little as 3 1/2 pounds of pressure on the trigger — light enough for a 5-year-old to fire the gun. Glock started offering optional trigger pulls of up to 12 pounds in the mid-1990s after the New York City Police Department — plagued by a string of police shootings — demanded a heavier trigger.
The gun has no manual safety to prevent it from firing if the trigger is accidentally pulled. In fact, the gun’s safety features — extremely effective in preventing discharges if the gun is dropped or hit — automatically are turned off every time the trigger is depressed.
In addition, most Glocks have no indicator that shows the guns are loaded and no magazine safety to prevent them from firing when the ammunition clip is removed. And unlike many other guns, the Glock is always semicocked and ready to shoot. This inner tension in its firing mechanism increases the likelihood of discharge if the trigger is accidentally moved, some gun experts say.
"What you have is a gun that is almost too eager to fire," said Carter Lord, a national firearms and ballistics consultant. "I think it may be an appropriate weapon for highly trained paramilitary officers in a SWAT team, but not for most police officers and certainly not for civilians."
Gun’s sensitive trigger endangers police officers
With so few Glock victims able to talk freely, details of injuries must often be obtained from police reports, eyewitness statements and court documents that haven’t been sealed. These sources paint a picture of a gun that has severely injured police officers.
In many instances, the injuries are devastating and permanent.
Take the case of Jimmy Pope. The former Jackson, Miss., police officer was shot in the face when a Glock being cleaned in another room by his roommate and fellow officer, Von Ware, accidentally discharged. The bullet went through Pope’s bedroom wall and the headboard of his bed before hitting him.
Pope lost an eye in the 1993 shooting and suffered extensive facial injuries.
Detroit police have had their share of Glock injuries, although police officials insist there have been very few instances of unintentional discharges with the gun.
Within two years of switching to the Glocks in 1992, two officers shot themselves in their legs and another was shot in the buttocks. And in July, Detroit Officer Michael Allen, 22, was shot in the leg, the bullet hitting the bone. His Glock accidentally fired as he tried to put it under the seat after his car was pulled over by customs inspectors on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge.
Police shooting themselves in their legs with Glocks is so prevalent, said firearms consultant and former Guns and Ammo editor Whit Collins, that gun experts describe the phenomenon as "Glock leg."
The list of Glock victims includes veteran police and experienced gun handlers — people like former U.S. Border Patrol agent Michael Roth, 66, a small-town sheriff and marksman with extensive gun training.
In March 1996, Roth was tightening his belt in a mall restroom in Buffalo, N.Y., when the Glock tucked in his waistband accidentally discharged, striking him in the leg.
Investigators believed the gun’s trigger caught in his clothing, causing the gun to fire. Roth sued Glock, blaming the gun’s light, short trigger pull and lack of a manual safety for the shooting.
Glock settled the case, but again killed any publicity by demanding Roth and his attorney sign a strict confidentiality agreement barring them from talking about the shooting.
For some police officers like Terry Turner of Beaumont, Texas, such shootings prove career-ending. Turner had his leg amputated last year after he was shot in the thigh when his Glock accidentally discharged as he placed it in his holster.
Accidental firings hurt suspects, bystanders
It isn’t just police officers who are getting hurt in accidental Glock shootings. Suspects, innocent bystanders and even spouses sometimes are caught in the line of fire.
That was the case in August when Woonsocket, R.I., police Lt. Walter Warot accidentally shot himself in the buttocks and slightly wounded the person sitting next to him.
Warot, who was sitting on a granite bench outside Providence Superior Court at the time, was adjusting a Glock tucked in his waistband when it discharged. An employee of the attorney general’s office sitting next to him was nicked by flying fragments of granite from the shot’s impact.
Other victims of Glock shootings have not been so lucky. Elroy Gonzalez was shot in the head and seriously injured in 1996 while being arrested by a Kentucky police officer for allegedly possessing a small amount of marijuana. The officer said he didn’t intend to fire his gun.
Ronnie Earl Kimbrell was shot in the back by a South Carolina state trooper in 1995 while being arrested for an alleged traffic violation. The trooper said he was trying to handcuff Kimbrell when he accidentally fired his gun.
James Lancaster was killed Aug. 8, 1996, after a sheriff’s deputy unintentionally shot him. At the time he was shot, Lancaster was being forced to the ground after a 20-mile car chase. The officer said he didn’t intend to fire the weapon.
Company holds gun users responsible for safety
One of the biggest safety criticisms leveled against Glock is the company’s refusal to put a manual safety on its guns. Glock developed a safety for its guns years ago, but never made it available to the public.
Glock built the safety for guns manufactured for the Finnish military, the gun maker’s general counsel and vice president Paul F. Jannuzzo revealed in a deposition. He said the company made 50 such pistols.
Like so many things about Glock, information about the manual safety remains shielded from the public. And despite the benefits many see in the feature, no agency has the power to compel the manufacturer to add it to its guns.
In 2002, Glock introduced an optional safety feature — a built-in safety lock — for some of its guns.
In announcing the locks, Glock acknowledged that gun manufacturers can design firearms with features that make them safer to keep in homes with children.
"The beauty of the Glock locking system is it is simple and safe," an article in last year’s Glocks Autopistols magazine stated. "It is the perfect system for someone without a strong background in firearms training and is dealing with the conflict of having young children in the home while feeling a great need for a tool that would enable them to maintain control when physically threatened with criminal intrusion."
But the gun maker’s Web site states the company’s philosophy that firearms safety is ultimately the responsibility of gun owners.
"Firearm safety is up to you, the end-user," Gaston Glock states in a message to customers on his company’s Web site. "The safe handling of firearms, like morality, cannot be legislated into existence. Only firearms users can make the safe use and storage of firearms a reality."
Just to name a very SMALL amount of problems that some police deptaments have with "Glocks safeties." I hope you remain safe friend. on you dangerous job as a police man. Take care.
