Law enforcement -- guns in the police station?

We lock up our guns when we go into the jail or holding area, otherwise, we wear them.

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My gun goes in my hoster at the start of shift and comes out when I am changing to leave the station. Our police service has a policy that all guns are to be unloaded, trigger locked and placed in a special locked box inside our locker (which is also locked from the outside). We have many civilians that have access to our building (secretaries, students, cleaners) and it wouldn't be safe to throw your gun into a drawer (although I have heard from some old timers that this used to happen way back when).

I do not remove my weapon anywhere in the station, even in an interview room. Our rooms are video monitored and have panic bars on all the walls for safety.

We are asked to unload our weapons if we go into the psych. ward of the hospital or if we interview anyone inside the prison.

Some plain clothes officers (detectives) will only take their gun if they are leaving the station for some reason and others wear their gun all the time.

In our area, a uniformed officer rarely does interviews or "interrogation". Mostly a detective will do that and while most of them here wear regular business casual attire, they always have a badge and a gun. They cannot take their guns into the jail or into court. And they cannot wear their gun without their badge unless they are specifically an undercover officer.

My department dictates that you wear what you are issued at all times. So yes working at the desk I wear my side arm and my vest. The only place weapons aren't allowed is the cell block...no weapons what so ever.

What if a person walks into the lobby and starts shooting? And your Glock is in the locker room? When the stuff goes down it goes down quick and anywhere..

Just imagine what would happen if some sicko decides to go into a police station and opens fire, and the cops have their weapons locked up in a locker or desk.

I work in a large department and we have guns on at almost all times, including interrogation rooms. We must remove them for prisoner processing and booking into jail as they are secure facilities. We do carry into court.

CA, USA...

When we get dressed at home, bulletproff vest goes on (front and back), our police shoes (sturdy), badge, full uniform, belt with cuffs, pepper spray, radios, taser gun and gun with full load of bullets, etc.

You see, we've always got to be ready for those idiots who break the law....and might shoot at you.

Are you thinking that we can go out with just a nice sweater like you see on some of the TV shows? . . . those are all fiction to make it look exciting so the advertisers will like it.

REAL life for police is not like most TV shows. . . there's no fake for us (like the WWE wrestling shows / performances / following a script.

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Varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. You always have to lock your gun up before going into the jail and some courts.

Law and Order and other shows like that are great entertainment (sometimes) but hardly the encyclopedia of law enforcement.

The only place in my department that they can't be worn is in the jail. We have special lock boxes at the entrance to our jail that the guns are put in before entering. All weapons have to be taken off before entering the main county jail. There, officers have to remove anything sharp, guns, tasers, knives, defensive sprays, and batons.

It is wise to leave your gun out of the interrogation room, but I am not aware of a specific policy...

P.S. - Note for Sarah: he would have shot you, and been 100% justified.