Saw this over on Texas Gun Talk today. From reading the article, seems you are limited to the firearm mfg., completion of training course, and it comes out of pocket. Copy and paste of article below with link.

Link - TFB article

 

Houston PD: Pistol Red Dot Sights Approved For Duty Use

Photo Credit: Glock

In what may be the largest adoption of red dot sights on pistols to date, the Houston Police Department has issued a letter to sworn officers approving the optics for duty use. The approval comes along with some common-sense caveats; a Safariland level III Holster must be used, optics-ready pistols from specified manufacturers and the completion of an eight hour training course prior to putting the RDS into service.

Along with the details of the approved manufacturers comes an important stipulation: milled slides are not allowed. Personnel must buy a factory-ready gun capable of accepting red dot sights. In addition, officers must have back up iron sights installed either in the form of suppressor height sights or the Leupold’s rear sight attachment.

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The move towards the use of micro red dot sights by military and law enforcement has been gaining steam in the past few years with special teams and units being allowed to field the technology on a more case-by-case process. With more than 5,000 officers on staff Houston PD is set to take the lead on electronic sight use in U.S. law enforcement.

The resulting data from required qualifications (scores using a red dot versus irons), fielding (models, mechanical/electronic failures) battery life and other variables will be important to law enforcement and civilian shooters alike. Real-world field testing is invaluable when it comes to picking the best guns, sights, holsters and related gear. Let’s hope that Houston PD is willing to share sanitized data (hint: call me).

Houston PD: Pistol Red Dot Sights Approved For Duty Use

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To all classified personnel:

The department has approved the use of Red Dot Sights (RDS) for pistols. In order for an officer to carry the RDS on their primary weapon they must meet the following requirements:

•  Safariland Level III 6360RDS Holster with primary weapon with RDS.
•  Manufactured weapon with slide cutout mount ready to accept RDS (i.e. Glock 17 MOS, Glock 19 MOS,  Smith and Wesson M&P C.O.R.E., Sig Sauer Rx line)
•  Aftermarket milled slides are prohibited.  Specialized units (i.e. SWAT and Narcotics) are exempt.
•  Iron Sights are required (i.e. Suppressor Sights or Leupold Rear Sight attachment)

Red Dot System must be one of the following :

• Trijicon
• Leupold
• Sig Sauer
• Burris
• Vortex
• Shield

Complete an 8 hour training course and qualify with their weapon using the RDS prior to carrying the weapon. 

Classes will commence in September 2018.   

Shooting medals will NOT be awarded for RDS weapons.

All RDS systems and holster will be purchased by the individual officer.  Reimbursement requests will not be authorized. 

 

Regards,

TokenEntry

Yes. This is big news. My buddy Brian is a cop outside Houston. He sent me his earlier in the week. Very progressive for a big PD.

Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics wrote a white paper that had a pretty big impact on this.

http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/7dc128_50a7c57f2d284e53bca8584a7f7925b1.pdf

The only thing I don’t like is that aftermarket milling is a no go. I don’t like the MOS as the RDS is a little higher than a custom killed slide.

That being said, I’d rock an MOS in a heartbeat if it meant I can carry an RMR06 on my duty gun.

 

Why not? Why not make them better?

Right @GramGun79

11 hours ago, Zeke said:

Why not? Why not make them better?

Right @GramGun79

I like it.  Point and shoot baby!!

I finally shot a handgun recently with a RDS on it.. I find RDS on a carbine very fast.. and easy to pick up.. on the handgun I actually found it slower than the iron sights.. I THINK it is because with the iron sights I know where they are going to be.. I have the reference of the slide.. and RDS on a carbine I have the reference of the stock and everything.. but on a handgun.. that is unsupported.. the dot is kind of out in space.. and I found myself looking for it sometimes.. where I NEVER have to look for the irons.. 

I am not sure why this is big news or why it is "better".  What I do like is that Houston cops can decide on almost any gun they want, as long as it's 40S&W.  My best friends are both HPD and both use different guns.

Makes sense to me...

6 minutes ago, blksheep said:

Makes sense to me...

Would you like some Glock with that RDS? Haha. 

This is Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics. He is the guy that wrote the white paper I linked to above. These videos answers a lot of question and cover pros and cons of a RDS on a pistol. Keep in mind that his perspective is primarily from a gunfighting mindset not competition - although some information is applicable to both:

 

New movement in L/E guns... look at CBP’s requirements for their next pistol; cut for RMR/Delta Point.

From what I’m hearing (I’m in BP application process, so very interested in the results), you likely won’t see CBP issuing red dots to all personnel, but will likely be an option for those who want it. Supposedly, they sent out surveys to field personnel, which formed many of the requirements of the solicitation (three sizes of pistol/with some interchangeability, no external safety, striker fired, 9mm). It is very forward thinking, as I think RDS on pistols is just at the verge of coming more mainstream. Even if they don’t get RDS on them from Jump Street, you have the ability to add them is a smart decision.

On 7/7/2018 at 7:09 PM, High Exposure said:

Yes. This is big news. My buddy Brian is a cop outside Houston. He sent me his earlier in the week. Very progressive for a big PD.

Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics wrote a white paper that had a pretty big impact on this.

http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/7dc128_50a7c57f2d284e53bca8584a7f7925b1.pdf

The only thing I don’t like is that aftermarket milling is a no go. I don’t like the MOS as the RDS is a little higher than a custom killed slide.

That being said, I’d rock an MOS in a heartbeat if it meant I can carry an RMR06 on my duty gun.

 

@High Exposure

Appreciate you sharing the white paper by Sage Dynamics. I had just finished reading the other half today. Being that I'm a civie a few questions I have for you and anyone else who can answer.

*Why allow other brands than the top two mfg's, Trijicon and Leupold, be listed as options?

*Why go with a large city like Houston vs a smaller city for testing RDS? Political decision maybe?

*Do you think long time veterans in LE will be opting for RDS?

 

Regards,

TokenEntry

 

On 7/8/2018 at 0:58 PM, High Exposure said:

This is Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics. He is the guy that wrote the white paper I linked to above. These videos answers a lot of question and cover pros and cons of a RDS on a pistol. Keep in mind that his perspective is primarily from a gunfighting mindset not competition - although some information is applicable to both:

 

24+ minutes on sight transitioning? The dude needs to learn the art of brevity and stop padding for youtube's monetization algorithms. 

That’s what you took away from that video?

1 hour ago, raz-0 said:

24+ minutes on sight transitioning? The dude needs to learn the art of brevity and stop padding for youtube's monetization algorithms. 

It just never ends.  

21 minutes ago, blksheep said:

It just never ends.  

Derp?

1 hour ago, High Exposure said:

That’s what you took away from that video?

The guy isn't full of shit, but really? How long do you need to discuss a plate rack? The amount of time given to the actual mechanic in terms of your eyes and focus for faster transitions is limited at best, although from what he says I'm sure he understands the concepts at work. The bulk of time is spent describing equipment for some exercises that are not real clear on how they are supposed to improve your transitions (i.e. it seems to me that you could practice doing things in a non-efficient manner and still wind up improving your times while limiting your maximum performance.)

He also loads up on the theoretical/abstract discussion first, with no visual reference to clarify what he's talking about, for a lot of people it's going to come off as even more boring and low information than it did for me. 

If you read guides on viewer retention for youtube, and you read guides on instructional design for video, they will both agree that you want to chop videos up into shorter bits and try to keep them to 5-10 minutes. 

If you read guides on how to maximize monetization, They will tell you 11-30 minute videos. 

That might have nothing to do with it, it may just be an artifact of sticking him in front of a camera in front a berm and he gets long winded without having appropriate props, a whiteboard to draw things on to visualize, whatever.