Not really, they carried a revolver or .38 special, might have had a shotgun between the front seats or in the trunk, Using khaki as the only body armor. Now there are police whose primary weapon is an ar-15 and the backup is a semi-auto .40 mm glock. everyone else has an ar-15 in the trunk and a glock in hand plus varying levels of body armor.
That's a far cry from having a 6 shot revolver on your hip just in case.
By those days standards that was "well armed", some police and some criminals carried semi-autos, the 1911 was obviously popular being the military issue sidearm since that year, but it wasn't common. And a shotgun is a fearsome weapon at shorter ranges, out to 100 yards or so; it's just that an AR-15 is better for almost all police purposes, ditto for civilians for self-defense.
And in the long run, I suspect trading their khaki for body armor and the disdain or worse of civilians will be viewed as a mistake.
Not really, they carried a revolver or .38 special, might have had a shotgun between the front seats or in the trunk, Using khaki as the only body armor. Now there are police whose primary weapon is an ar-15 and the backup is a semi-auto .40 mm glock. everyone else has an ar-15 in the trunk and a glock in hand plus varying levels of body armor.
That's a far cry from having a 6 shot revolver on your hip just in case.