Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

I am a police officer in Western NC. I'm a reserve (four years of full time previously). I run a small company that sells tactical equipment, duty gear, firearms accessories, etc. I'm in the process of changing my business plan to serve small departments in my area (tons of small PDs and SOs in Western NC). My question is this:

- If you work for a small or medium sized agency, how does your department generally acquire equipment (that includes just about anything but firearms and weapons that require an FFL)?

I don't have a storefront, warehouse, or sales website. I sell to a handfull of individuals now for extra cash, but plan to become a direct retailer. Because I operate with almost no overhead, I'm able to offer pretty incredible prices for orders of any size. I'm trying to gague where and how most departments order their equipment (onlne, local store, a service like mine, etc). I only know how my department handles equipment. If you have any insight into how your small department orders equipment, I'd appreciate any info.

-TL

We have about 18 officers in my department.

There is a single store in the area (St. Louis Metro) that operates with no substantive local competition. It's either them, or Galls, etc.

We use them.

Citicop.

BTW. Thank you for introducing yourself, asking a legitimate question, and awaiting an answer without spamming your website into the message. I honestly was not expecting that when I read the thread title.

NYPD has an equipment section, goes to the lowest bidder, and then in turn we as employees of the department can get the items at a substantially lower rate (I got my gun cleaning kit for about $4).

Some items they don't purchase (flashlights, knives, etc), so we'll have to purchase at the local equipment shops. Now that the equipment section is online, unless I need something IMMEDIATELY or its a fitted item (boots) then I could save quite a bit of money by buying it that way. The equipment section in person is only open during day tours, m-f, and there's not much parking in the area.

Two ways really, for small expendable stuff we petty cash it. (batteries, Streamlight repairs, that sort of thing)

For big ticket items we have a procurement committee comprised of officers and admin.