One of the great things about Glocks is that they can be detail-stripped quickly with little more than a pin punch.

Take a close look at the locking block for cracks after you pull it out. You never know.

Unless the pistol looks cherry, I'd replace the RSA and the magazine springs. Other springs in the pistol can be left alone, unless it looks like it has thousands of rounds through it. The top forward portion of the barrel, and the forward portion of the chamber hood will be the clues for that.

The thing with any LEO trade in gun is this:
Most coos being not gun people, shoot only when required by regulation which for most agencies is an annual or semi annual qualification. Even if there is a training intense agency that stipulates quarterly qualification that is a few hundred rounds a year, time say 10 year before trade in, that is just 3000 rounds barely broke in. I shoot that much in 3 months typically.
There is the odd chance you get the gun issued to the “gun guy” or instructor that was shot a ton, but even that gun probably was then carefully maintained.
Very rarely is a used cop gun ever worn from a mechanical shooting perspective. However, the may look “beat” due to all the lumps and bumps they take in just being carried.

A good parallel is the M9 I was issued for deployment to Iraq. We shot less than 100 rounds before deploying, and I shot it whenever the opportunity presented for practice, but that only amounted to 50-100 rounds several times over a year deployment. So a basically new gun was shot perhaps 300 rounds over about 18 months. Nothing that would even begin to result in mechanical issues or concerns.
Exterior appearance was appalling- the finish was so worn it looked like it was a stainless steel gun, almost no finish left lots of scrapes and dents from mounting and dismounting vehicles etc.

There's talk of replacing our Gen 3 Model 22s. No reason other than Just Because. Knowing the people I work with, they get maybe 25 rounds a year through them for qualification and are never cleaned. I wouldn't hesitate to buy one, clean it and be good to go.

Agencies seem to turn over guns at an amazing rate nowadays, based on my LE experience and what I saw working at a dealer. Relatively few cops are the kind of shooter who will actually wear out a gun, and they are also the type to keep them in good repair and condition.

Give it a good cleaning, see how "broken in" it is.
Toss a hundred or so rounds through it. See what's going on with it.

Maybe, maybe you need to replace a $15 recoil spring...

Or, if you just don't trust it at all, for around $50- get a whole new parts kit. If you're not mechanically inclined, the YouTube videos and replacing the parts might take an hour. If you ARE mechanically inclined- 20 minutes.

Depending on how old it is, you might need to toss on some new sights, if the old ones were tritium.

At my old department, there were four “shooters” out of 120 officers. But our guns, though used, were taken care of.

If I were to get a LEO trade in, I’d change all the springs regardless of looks. And roll on.

Jones said it. Carried often, shot rarely.

Fwiw... My "hiking in the mountains gun" is a Glock Model 21 with a barrel and recoil spring for 45 Super. I've had it for about 4 years. I've mainly shot +P 45 ACP or 45 Super.
So far, so good...

Changing all of the springs is unnecessary. RSA and magazine springs are the only springs that would need attention, unless a Glock has tens of thousand rounds through it and, as has been noted, most police trade-ins are low round count guns.

Ranges which rent firearms and have Glocks with tens of thousand rounds through them report that the Glock pre-gen5 trigger spring tends to break in the high thirty-thousand round range. Chris Bartocci reports the same thing- trigger spring breakage at around 38K. Honestly, how many shooters get anywhere near that many rounds in a single Glock?

The other springs in the pistol- the slide lock spring, firing pin spring, firing pin safety spring, extractor depressor plunger spring and the magazine catch spring- changing these parts would be a waste of money.

Buy with confidence. Maybe swap the recoil spring, but assess that after first shooting it. Same with mag springs. Buy those new springs (or just buy new mags--it's a Glock, they're cheap) as needed. FWIW, I've run a couple of 9mm G19 RSAs beyond 10k rounds with no ill effect to date in those two guns (Gen3 and 4). Hell I've run one Gen4 G23 RSA up to 9k rounds with no hiccup to date, though granted that gun isn't my EDC G23.

I have a CPO SIG and a plain old PD trade in that are good solid guns serving in home defense. Can't see where a used Glock is any different.

It’s impossible to know the history of guns like that, but I would be inclined to believe that it’s less likely that an LE gun was subjected to some weird modification or use conditions than something being dumped by an unknown non-LE owner. Long ago I kept track of the things I read here that hardened my resolve to not purchase used guns, and I consider the general membership here to be a step or two above the “average” gun owner when it comes to things like that.

And of course most guns are relatively simple mechanical devices that can be easily inspected and tested before being relied upon for serious purposes.

I strip every gun purchased as soon as possible. Usually only purchase new.
But a LEO carried the gun before you. Bet their life it would go bang every time.

This Kahr K9 was a former NYPD pistol. I carried it quite a bit for a few years and trusted it. I don't recall any issues at the range.

My 229 CPO from sig is great. But I know it was rebuilt at the factory.

Atlantic firearms has NC state trooper 320 357 sig trades ins for a decent price.

With a couple minor spring changes, I would have no problem with a LEO trade in for a ccw/pistol,especially a Glock. You just can't kill them, not that I advocate that you try.

I would absolutely trust it, and absolutely buy it from GT. I've had nothing but good experience with them. Id slap a new recoil spring in and be good

One of my guys asked for some ammo to practice with. I tried to give him three boxes and he only took one. That single box of 50 rds sat on top of his locker for two years until I finally took it back.

I've owned 12-15 of em, revolvers, semi autos, rifles and shotguns. Some were so nice that "if I didn't know, I wouldn't have known". Others were kind of cliche, neglected a little, some beat to crap on the outside, but inside didn't show all that much use. Never CCW one, but competed with a few of them and have one as theoretical home defense gun.

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Atlantic firearms has NC state trooper 320 357 sig trades ins for a decent price.

Wow. While the 320 has been out for awhile, I can't believe that any agency has had them long enough to warrant replacement, unless they are leery of the the 320's alleged safety issues.

Treat it like any used gun. Inspect it. Clean it and replace any parts that seem off.

When Ohio switched to 25 rd qualification, there were people that only shot 25 rds a year. I made sure to buy their guns back when we did trade ins.

In 2018 we had guys with ten year old gen3 Glock 31s that had less than 300 rounds through them after ten years. We switched to gen4 31s then and you know they only shot the 25 required rounds per year. I made them all shoot an extra 45 rounds of JHP to make sure it worked with their guns. So when we switched to 9mm this year, we got to buy back our gen4 31s with less than 200 rds through them for $250. Again, I made sure to buy back any guns that some guys didn’t buy back. I also bought back one of our unissued 32s. In fact, that 32 is getting broken in now with my daughter. She turned 21 recently and is attending a firearms safety/ccw class right now. She knows she can just constitutional carry in Ohio but wanted to take the class with her friend. She’s shot plenty of times with my 31 so 357sig is nothing new for her.


We’re now mostly a younger department and issue RMRs so a lot of the younger officers want to shoot more. I’m happy for that.