Colt Official Police

The Colt Official Police is a medium frame, double-action revolver with a six-round cylinder, made by the Colt's Manufacturing Company and chambered mainly for the .38 Special cartridge. It began in 1908 as the Colt Army Special, a modernized service revolver sold to many American police departments as they moved from .32 caliber revolvers to the larger .38. In 1927 Colt renamed it the Official Police and made a few cosmetic changes, including checkering on the trigger and a better polished blued finish, to market it to law enforcement. It became one of the bestselling police firearms of all time and came to typify the sidearm of the American police officer in the 1950s. The type also served in the military. The British Purchasing Commission bought almost 50,000 for British and Commonwealth forces in 1940 and 1941, and during the Second World War the United States issued it to military police and other agencies, including a simplified wartime variant called the Commando. Colt announced the discontinuation of the Official Police in 1969, after more than 400,000 had been made.