Things They Don't Tell You About Carrying Everyday.

My agency started the process of becoming an armed agency about 3 years ago.  It was a slow process, but we are almost done.  I've had my carry permit for a long time, but I was very casual about carrying, only carrying on my person if I felt I needed too, or just wanted to.  I almost always had a handgun in my vehicle, but rarely on me.  As we became an armed agency, we were informed we were law enforcement, and we started wearing uniforms.  Navy blue polos with big gold badges on them, khaki tac pants, boots, we were looking a lot like deputies.  With the commission card came gear, including a duty belt.  Then there was all this unrest and protests, and people shooting law enforcement officers.  Now I carry everyday.  If I leave my house there's a firearm on me.  If I'm at work, its on my strong side hip.  If I'm not, it's still somewhere on me.  It may or may not be the same one, but it's there.  As a result, I've discovered some things.  I'll reveal the over the next couple of posts.

First, at work, I am limited on how I can carry.  If I'm out in the field, or seeing a lot of clients in the office, I have to have on the full uniform, including the belt, with gun, extra ammo, expanding baton, pepper spray, flashlight, ect.  So it's open carry, unless weather calls for a coat or jacket.  The 511 coat we are issued covers the firearm pretty well.  Regardless the glock is on the point of my hip.
When I conceal carry, it's usually iwb.  Owb is really different than Iwb in several ways.

I don't always fit in chairs anymore.  This is especially noticeable with the duty belt.  With all that stuff on my hips, I hang up on some chairs with arms.  I may be able to wiggle myself into them, but what if I have to get up fast?

If I get carjacked I'm screwed.  The holster sits right under the buckle for the seat belt if I'm driving.  No way to draw.  And I haven't found a place in either vehicle to mount a holster where it would not be immediately visible to anyone who glanced in the window.

Nobody teaches you how to wear a duty belt.  At least no one in our agency did.  My first belt was a 2 inch one piece belt.  If you just put the gear on and buckle it around your waist, it will drive you nuts.  Everything shifts, it's riding up, it's riding down, it's falling off.  After asking some friends and researching, I decided I needed belt keepers.  Belt keepers attach the duty belt to the belt holding up your pants.  They can also be positioned to keep articles from shifting around on your duty belt if you have that issue.  On the other hand, you've just shifted part of the weight of that gear to your normal belt.  If it's not a good belt, you'll now spend all day pulling up your pants.

You need a gun belt.  I will do a separate post on just this subject, so I'm not going to attempt to go into detail now, but see paragraph above.

You have to become very conscious of your actions and position.  If your open carrying, everyone knows you're armed.  Your firearm is right there, even in a retention holster it can be taken from you. You have to be aware of your position and where everyone around you is.  We were trained on this, but it's still something that has to be practiced at all time.  I lock my firearm in my office when I have to fingerprint someone.  I am right handed, and have to stand on the left of the offender when I print them.  This puts me at a disadvantage, so I would rather they not have the option of grabbing my weapon.

Going to the bathroom is very different.  If I'm in uniform and need to do anything that requires dropping trouser, it becomes a major operation.  If I'm in the office, it's not so bad.  We don't share bathrooms with the offenders and have several small bathrooms as opposed to one big men's room with multiple stalls, so the process is simpler.  I go into the bathroom and lock the door.  I remove the glock and place it either on the sink or toilet back, remove the spare mags and baton and do likewise.  I then undo the duty belt, unsnap the right, front belt keeper, undo the inner belt, then drop trouser..  Alternatively, some men undo all the belt keepers, remove the entire duty belt including weapons and ammo and place it on an extra chair in the main mens room.  This is a recent addition.  I have yet to try it and see which method is quicker.  The second men's room in the new wing is not chair equipped yet.  This method works at about 75% of our field offices too.  So far I haven't had to do anything I couldn't handle with unzipping at the others or at a public restroom.