As a formr deputy I got in a world of sh*t when my supervisor saw me pull my M1A out of the trunk of my cruiser one day......he had a cat. Told me SOP from risk management was a shotgun, issue sidearm and an approved backup personal sidearm that I had qualified a course of fire with and THAT WAS ALL I was supposed to be carrying. I worked a very dangerous area alone with backup some 20 minutes away. After the ass chewing I continued to carry it but was careful who saw it......:o)
I carried my personal M1A. As a lot of other deputies did with either a Bolt gun or AR clone of some sort "unofficially".
I am of the opinion based on my experience that most if not all PD's, LEO's ,Sheriff Departments need to double up their manpower so all patrols are 2 LEO's and one should have a shotgun an the other a rifle ,either bolt or semi-auto, that will punch ballistic body armor worn by a bad guy.
As most rifle shots from a LEO are under 50 yards I'd suggest a .308/7.62MM Bolt gun configured as a "scout gun" with Aimpoint or ACOG chunk of optics . A LEO needs to be surgical and accountable for every round they fire and to equip em "all" with an AR clone for a possible spray'n pray incident is something a risk manager should consider.
Leave the right eye left eye huggin a hostage stop shot to the motors to a well trained police marksman/sniper.
FN makes a 7.62MM "patrol rifle" , bolt action that would be my first choice for issue to all patrol vehicles to use in such a BOA Hollywood situation.
Just my opinion.......
There's 4 M-14's down there too. Captain won't let me have one of those. Don't know why, they certified me to carry my M1A on duty.
We got a few Thompson submachine guns also. Very nice.
I agree about the two officer patrols, but I do realize that doing so halves the number of patrol units per shift.
I'm not as familiar with shotguns as I should be - what's the performance of 12 or 20 ga. slugs against Bad Guys' body armor? In the city, where I just moved away from last month, I could see rifle round overpenetration being a real problem. Out here where I am now it's much less of an issue.
People forget or just don't know that the police in Hollywood had to "borrow" guns from a local gun shop to protect themselves against the robbers.
Sad when our LEO's don't have the weapons they need to do their jobs.