The IACP Convention

I had a great day yesterday.   My good buddy Mike was in San Diego for the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention, and I was his deputy for a day.   Yep, Mike made me an official Assistant to the Director for one day only.   I may even be getting a gun out of the deal, but more on that later.  And don’t ask…my deal expired last night and I can’t fix any speeding tickets for you.

The convention was very interesting….it was more or less like a trade show, but the attendees were all senior police agency executives (hence the name), including none other than the Director of the FBI, James Comey.    The show itself had very interesting stuff on display, including police vehicles of all sorts, helicopters, drones, all kinds of police equipment (including at least half a dozen firearms exhibits), clothing, and much more.  I guess if I was surprised by anything, it was how many software companies had exhibits.   The police buy a lot of management and crime statistics programs.

The vehicles were interesting.  Here’s my good buddy Mike checking out a Dodge Challenger police car…

There were probably a half dozen helicopters on display.  This one goes for about $5,000,000.

A body armor exhibit…

A very cool drone.  The guys had one of these on the China trip.  This one had an infrared camera showing its image in the screen beneath the drone.  That’s me in the lower left…

Harley, Zero, BMW, Kawasaki, and Polaris had police motorcycles on display.  They were all enormous, including the Zero.   This is the BMW.  It goes for about $24,500.  Check out the switchgear…

Yours truly with a Harley…these start at about $17,000.

Mike got a shot of me on the Harley.   I couldn’t believe how heavy it was.  I used to own a couple of Harleys.   I put a lot of miles on those bikes, but when I sat on this one yesterday, it felt ridiculously heavy.  I didn’t think they were that heavy when I rode my Harleys, but I sure feel that way now.

Facial recognition software, showing Mike and me…

SIG, Smith and Wesson, Glock, HK, and CZ had exhibits.   I was particularly interested in the CZ exhibit.   They had real rifles (you know, with actual walnut stocks).  The rifle at the top of the CZ rack (in the photo below) is chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum, and it is truly a show gun.  It doesn’t show up in the photo, but this particular rifle had an exhibition-grade walnut stock (which kind of makes sense when you think about it…we were, after all, at a show).  I talked to the CZ guy and he told me this IACP show is the last one at which the current group of display guns will be on display.   One thing led to another in our conversation, and to make a long story short, I’m going to purchase that rifle.   I am excited.

The cockpit of a Kawasaki Concours police motorcycle.   Lots of buttons and switches.

After dinner, the Chiefs were having a reception on the USS Midway in San Diego.   That was way cool…

Mike on the flight deck of USS Midway at night, checking in with the people back east…

San Diego’s skyline in the background…

The Nikon D3300 was wringing everything it could out of its low-light capabilities.   That’s an F-4 and an F-14 on the flight deck.

James Comey is in there somewhere.  The reception was sponsored by the FBI’s National Academy.   The chiefs owned the USS Midway last night.

Another cool night shot…

…and another…

Free drinks, free dinner, and all on the USS Midway.   I might say it doesn’t get any better than this, but then I realized in about 10 days I’m going for a motorcycle ride in Baja.  The fish tacos last night were good.  The ones in Baja will be better.

And folks, that was about it.  Fun times.  Good friends.   Good photo ops.

Stay tuned.  As always, there’s more good stuff coming your way on the CSC blog.