Kimber's SIS series

For many years equipped with state of the art long guns like SureFire-equipped Remington 870 12 gauge pumps and CAR-15.223s, SIS was allowed early to carry Colt .45 autos like SWAT's when they were "going into something heavy." In the mid-1980s they were issued S&W .45 autos that served them well in various incarnations until shortly after the turn of the 20th Century, when SIS became the first LAPD unit to be issued Glock .45s (under Chief Parks, about a year before Glock fan Bill Bratton took over LAPD, and soon authorized Glocks in 9mm, .40, and .45 department-wide).

The Glock 21 is still the official issue sidearm of the Special Investigation Section, but has been largely supplanted by privately owned, department approved Kimber SIS 1911 .45 autos. Both are excellent weapons, which well serve the SIS and the citizens of our nation's second most populous city, whom SIS has so long and so admirably protected. Current issue .45 ACP amino on LAPD is Federal Tactical Bonded 230 grain +P hollow point for SIS and SWAT, and Federal HST 230 grain +P JHP for patrol and detective divisions.

Handgunner thanks currently serving SIS personnel who contributed greatly to this story, but who cannot be named here for obvious security reasons.

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SHOOTING DOWN A BAD RAP

JOHN FASANO

Stopping bad guys is dirty work. The SIS was forced to use deadly force on 28 suspects in the line of duty between 1965 and 1992, inciting political and Community activists and prompting the L.A. Times to dab them the city's "Death Squad."

Detective Tom Burke, Commander of the unit for six years during the worst attacks from the press, explained it was the Squad's unorthodox methods that made them a target for such political attacks. Most police forces, even Tactical Units like SWAT and SEB, are reactive. They are called out when the crime has gone down. But SIS was founded on the premise they would be PRO-Active. They would target the bad guys the Department's other Detective Divisions had identified as habitual offenders, and use their surveillance techniques to make sure they would be there to take the suspect down during the commission of the crime. As noted, this puts the SIS into direct contact with hopped-up, heavily armed criminals. This created the myth among those elements in our society sympathetic to lawbreakers that somehow the SIS were being "unfair" and not "playing by the rules."

The L.A. City government ran for cover when the media circus started, but the headlines weren't there when the smoke cleared. After massive investigations by every conceivable police and civilian authority, not one SIS member was found to have violated department policy or was charged in any of the shooting incidents. "Improvisation," Burke points out, "NOT impropriety, is the policy of the SIS"

COPYRIGHT 2008 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning