larrymod wrote:
Then why have most police departments standardized on .40, I wonder? Maybe they see it as the best compromise between magazine capacity and stopping power?
Marketing?
A couple of decades ago, Glock convinced police departments that their .38 and .357 revolvers were outmoded and got them to standardize on 9mm. Ruger, Sig, et. al. owe them a great deal, since they rode that wave.
But then what? With every cop in the country, practically, already carrying a 9mm semi-auto what was left. Those service weapons, at 10 years old, had perhaps under 500 rounds through them and the worst they had was holster wear.
How to make more sales? Well, you had to convince the police brass, perhaps with help from the rank and file and the unions, that 9mm is an inadequate round. "Shouldn't your officers have superior stopping power to the guys with illegal 9mm's????"
Well, that worked.
On top of that, many departments have a policy of destroying, not selling, the old but serviceable 9mm's when they're replaced. That means that in the civilian market, the manufacturers didn't even have to compete against their own, pre-owned, product!
Something they haven't yet tried, and which I would recommend, is to give away a free latest-model iPhone with each new service-weapon sold.