R.M. Vivas

Updated 18JUN26

The Equipment Bureau (EB) of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) was the command responsible for kitting out newly hired police officers. The Department often vacillated between referring to this command as the Equipment Bureau or the Equipment Section. I have observed that most period documents are stamped Equipment Bureau and shall refer to it as such in all my work.

Whilst officers had the option of purchasing their uniforms and equipment from approved sources outside the department, most chose to outfit themselves from the Equipment Bureau because of convenience, better prices and, for a while, loan accounts to help pay for the initial outfitting.
    An officers revolver was typically his most expensive outlay and purchasing it from or through the Equipment Bureau was usually the most economical way of acquiring ones’ departmental piece.
    Records of revolver sales were maintained by the Equipment Bureau. These handwritten entries were recorded in legal-sized hardbound ledger books. Each book was approximately 200-250 pages long and contained 36-37 entries per page. The type of information contained in each entry varied but at minimum contained:
    * Make
    * Model
    * Serial number
    * Caliber
    * Date
    * Selling officers initials
    * Purchasing officers:
            o Name
            o Shield number
            o Command
Additional information was sometimes listed depending upon the era and efficacy of the recording officer. Such additional information might have been:
    * Rank
    * Tax ID number
    * Equipment Bureau number
    * Training class designation

    As best as I have been able to determine, surviving records cover the period of 1921 through 1987. There are multiple gaps in the record timeline where ledger books can not be accounted for. Most of the pre-WW2 records are missing. WW2 and post-WW2 records are largely intact but with some gaps.

The information for each record was either wholly contained on one page or was spread across two pages. When I copied the records, I copied only the pages that had serial number data. If an officers record was contained to a single page, it would have been with the serial number and I would have a complete copy. If the officers record was spread across two pages, I would only have the page with the serial number data and part of the officers information; usually this results in a record that is incomplete to date or command.
    The records were all handwritten and their usefulness was predicated upon their legibility. Many different officers maintained the records and the quality of penmanship ranged from satisfactory to artistically illegible to absolutely abysmal. While numbers were usually legible, names could be a major challenge to decipher.
    Initially, perhaps 15% of the names could be deciphered with any degree of certainty. Names that could have multiple spellings (BAER, BEAR, BEHR) were especially tricky because if it was partially legible, the temptation to fill in the undecipherable part with the presumed spelling ran the risk of getting the name wrong. Since any subsequent record searches hinged on the proper spelling of the name, it was possible to come up with an investigatory dead end not because of a lack of records but simply because of a misspelled name.

    A solution to this problem was to compare the illegible names to a list of graduates from department commencement exercises. For example: if J–n SM–H bought his gun on January 2, 1942, then one can extrapolate that he graduated sometime in April 1942. A review of commencement records for April 1942 showed a graduating class of 196 men, 16 of whom had a first name that started with J; of those 16, 2 had a last name that started with S and of those 2 only 1, John SMITH, had a last name that started with S and ended with H.
    Using this cross-referencing technique, the ability to decipher names went from %15 to approximately %98. Additionally, it was possible to see what the graduation rate of recruits was by comparing the number who bought revolvers to the number who were in the graduating class.
    Records of commencements were obtained from back issues of the department’s internal magazine, SPRING 3100, and some period newspaper articles. Prior to WW2 it was quite common for newspapers to publish a complete list of graduating officers as well as having that list published in SPRING 3100.
    Post-WW2 the practice seems to have faded and it becomes necessary to look to other sources for such lists. Research thus far has not turned up anything promising in terms of alternate list sources but the process is ongoing.

SURVIVAL RATE

    Despite their historical value and legal usefulness (Federal law requires the maintenance of revolver disposition records) the ledgers were somewhat casually maintained. When I first became aware of their existence they were stored in two milk crates under a restroom sink in the Equipment Bureau at Police Headquarters.
    While going through the original records it was not unusual to find a memo slip that indicated a law enforcement agency was conducting a trace of a revolver that factory records had shipped to the NYPD. The Department would then have to go through the ledgers, find the entry of the revolvers disposition and forward that information to the inquiring agency. This indicated that despite their age the ledgers still had an investigatory value that should have merited their retention.
    The following ledgers were observed and copied. The titles given are the titles by which the Equipment Bureau labelled them.

    * Book 21-26
    * Book 26-39
    * Book 42-46
    * Book 46-48
    * Book 48-50
    * Book 50-51
    * Book 51
    * Book 52-55 Series C Off-duty
    * Book 52-62 OP Sales
    * Book 55-58
    * Book 56-63 S&W M&P
    * Book 58-61
    * Book 61 Off-Duty Revolvers
    * Book 63 Series A
    * Book 66-69 M&P Sales
    * Book 67 Off-Duty
    * Book 69 M&P Series A
    * Book 69 Off-Duty
    * Book 70 Series C
    * Book 71 Series B Metropolitan
    * Book 73 Series C
    * Book 73 Series D
    * Book 75 Series C
    * Book Alternate MkIII
    * Book Ruger 4 inch V
    * Book 2 inch S&W

A statistical breakdown of the information available reveals the following records available. Numbers given are approximate, as some data is still being reviewed:

Smith & Wesson – Total processed records 61,263
    * S&W M&P Pre-War Series – 288
    * S&W M&P V/SV Series – 851
    * S&W M&P S Series – 4,693
    * S&W M&P C Series – 18,902
    * S&W M&P D Series – 9,097
    * S&W M10 2” – 400
    * S&W M36 ### Series – 12,701
    * S&W M36 J Series – 9,875
    * S&W M36 3” Series – 1,691
    * S&W Terriers – 1,623
    * S&W .32 HE – 1,142
    * S&W Regulation Police – Not Processed Yet

Colt – Total processed records 13,467
    * Colt Army Special/Official Police – 7,213
    * Colt Cobra – 720
    * Colt Commando – 951
    * Colt Detective Special – 3,352
    * Colt Metropolitan – 647
    * Colt Police Positive – 584
    * Colt Police Positive Special – Not Processed Yet

    It is very important not to draw conclusions about brand preference from these statistics. Due to the gaps in record timeline, it’s entirely possible that entire ledgerbooks of Colt’s may not be represented in these figures. The most accurate statement that can be made is that, based upon available data, the Department favored S&W over Colt by a 4:1 ratio.

DATABASE CREATION

    The process of creating a database of revolver data initially took about 2 years.
    The initial entries were very brief and contained the following information:
    * Serial number
    * Date
    * Record source

    Each record group was based upon a revolver make and model, so it was not necessary to include that information in the entry. One simply opened a spreadsheet labelled S&W M&P and then searched for a specific serial number. After finding that serial number, the record location (Book 42-46 p. 123) was noted and the hardcopy of that specific book and page number was looked up.
    This was an effective system but was hampered by two limitations: searches could only be done by serial number and the illegible handwriting was still an issue. A specific revolver record might be found but the details of who it went to could not be determined.
    Once the technique of cross-referencing the revolver records with commencement records was established it became possible to create Enhanced Entries.
Enhanced Entries took the original 3 element entries and expanded them to include all relevant data. All fields were searchable, and this made it much easier to determine who got which gun, particularly when fielding the very common inquiry “My uncle was on the job in 19XX. His name was XXX XXXXX; what gun did he have?”. Where previously searches could only be done by serial number, they could now be done by multiple search fields:
    * Make
    * Model
    * Serial Number
    * Caliber
    * Equipment Bureau Number
    * Officers:
        o Name
        o Shield Number
        o Command
        o Graduation date
    * Source of data
In some cases, tax ID numbers were also included.

    For the firearms collector, particularly one with an interest in law enforcement guns, these records are of inestimable value. They allow for the identification of a specimen not only as an NYPD gun but allow us to clearly document what NYPD officer purchased the gun and carried it on the streets of New York.
    In many instances, the recovered data can be used in searches of newspaper databases can turn up details of the officers career that can enhance the value and enjoyment of a specific revolver.

Benefit To Collectors

Collectors are very fortunate that, in the case of NYPD revolvers, it is possible to trace a revolvers history well past its departure from the factory and its arrival on a customer’s doorstep.

In this example, we look at Smith & Wesson Military & Police (M&P) #C400763; a generally unremarkable 4-inch Heavy Barrel Square Butt .38 Special revolver.

An examination of the Smith & Wesson factory shipping records show that this gun was shipped on October 2, 1957 to the New York City Police Department.

If the fellow who owns this gun were to ask for a factory letter through the Smith & Wesson Historical Foundation, he would receive a letter stating as much.

If he were to request a “Deep Dive”, he might receive a copy of the shipping invoice showing that this particular gun was one of four hundred in the shipment, the cost was $42.10 per gun and they were all shipped to the NYPD Equipment Bureau at 400 Broome Street in Manhattan.

All very useful information, especially as it confirms the gun is an NYPD gun. Normally, this is where the trail would end. However, the Equipment Bureau records which have survived allow us to see what happened to this revolver after it arrived at the Equipment Bureau in 1957.

Apparently, it sat on the shelves for almost two years before it was taken down, dusted off and sold to Probationary Patrolman #19076……Frank V. Serpico!

And so a very collectable revolver associated with a famous policeman emerges from the cocoon of obscurity.

Obviously not every gun that went to the NYPD is going to have gone to Popeye Doyle, “Paco” Serpico or Mario Biaggi, but some of the other fellows had some pretty interesting careers and that adds to the historical value of these guns.

The NYPD records are far from complete, but I hold perhaps 60,000 of them. If you want me to run your gun and see if I can put a name with it, contact me at the email address provided. I’ll need the make, model, serial number and any unique stampings that may be on the gun. If it is an NYPD gun and I can document it to a specific user, I can generate a historical letter for you that gives the details of the gun and provides copies of the records I may have. There is no charge for this, but if it helps out your collecting, well, I do have an Amazon Tip-Jar.

Best,

RM Vivas