For Tampa: Quick draw or secure holster?

Holsters with safety features cost more, but suspects have grabbed police guns recently.

By AMY HERDY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 29, 2002

TAMPA -- Twice within the past two weeks, a criminal suspect has snatched a gun from the holster of a Tampa police officer.

Unlike holsters used by most other bay area departments, this can be done with a simple snap.

Since the 1980s, Tampa police have issued their officers a leather "thumb break" holster, one that secures their 9mm with a single band.

Different holsters -- some with safety features that would add two or three steps to free a gun -- cost more, between $70 and $110 for each of the department's 1,000 officers, and require hours of additional training.

Although other agencies believe holsters with more retention devices are safer, some Tampa officers worry that to switch styles would be making a dangerous choice between a quicker draw and a better chance of keeping a gun away from a suspect.

Still, others say it's time for a change.

"They push the thumb in and pull the weapon out -- that's all it takes" with the current style, said Tampa Sgt. Jim Diamond, head of the bomb squad and vice president of the police union.

"It's the same thing I was carrying 31 years ago," Diamond said. "I would like to see us go to a more secure holster."

Although the sheriff's offices in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties have converted to newer and more secure styles of holsters, Tampa police continue to use the same local manufacturer they have used for the past 25 years. The Tampa Police Department orders about 35 to 40 "thumb snap" holsters per year at a cost of $36 each, said spokeswoman Katie Hughes.

Officials say it is an issue of cost, as well as a preference for the faster draw for officers.

"What's worse? The bad guy getting the gun out of the holster, or the officer not being able to get the gun out of the holster?" said Tampa Cpl. Eric Diaz, who coordinates training for Tampa police and said he intends to again examine the issue.

The higher-security holsters have a potential drawback for some officers he has seen, Diaz said. "They've struggled to get these guns out of the holsters."

As it stands now, Tampa officers can spend their own money on department-approved safety features for their holsters, Diaz said.

However, for the past year, members of the department's tactical team have been issued the Safariland Level II, one of the newer styles of holster, he said. "The holster we had before didn't even have a thumb break," said Diaz, who belongs to the tactical team.

Switching the rest of the department to one of the newer holsters with more safety features has been brought up before, said Detective Mark Sutkoff, a member of the Tampa police safety committee, but always been rejected.

"It's a tradeoff," Sutkoff said. "You're sacrificing drawing your weapon for retention. "It would be very poor officer safety if we handed out 1,000 holsters to officers who weren't comfortable with or didn't know how to use them," he said.

Using the newer holsters, Sutkoff said, "is not something you can learn in one afternoon at the practice range. It's something you have to practice 1,000 times over."

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is phasing in a new belt with a more secure holster, said spokesman Lt. Rod Reder, who declined for safety reasons to discuss its features. The Sheriff's Office is converting from the "thumb snap" style, Reder said.

Sheriff's officials are coordinating training for the 1,000 deputies who will be issued the new holsters, he said. The total cost of the new belts will run the Sheriff's Office about $200,000, Reder said, not including the cost of training.

Since the Pinellas Sheriff's Office changed its holsters two years ago from the "thumb snap" style to one of the newer Safariland brands with three types of retention devices, no deputy has lost a gun to a suspect, said Cpl. Nathan Samoranski of the training division.

"In training, we've had deputies stand there with their hands on their head, and others are not able to pull their gun from their holster" quickly or at all, Samoranski said.

The scary thing, he said, is that "bad guys in prison practice how to take an officer's weapon."

-- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Amy Herdy can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or herdy@sptimes.com

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