For goodness sake, it’s always bothered me… Why must cops wear street shoes? Have you ever tried to run in street shoes? So, why aren’t tennis shoes part of the uniform?
- Jinx
They are hardly “street shoes” or dress shoes…they are multi purpose really.
Tennis shoes (sneakers) aren’t very warm or protective. A good police shoe is solid, affords good running, good protection, etc.
Cops do a variety of things…and they rarely run as if in a track meet. Cops find themselves wrestling dogs, gators, climbing in/through/around things.
Now, I do know that on some patrols, police wear sneakers…like bike patrols…beach patrols…and some other scenarios.
When wearing shoes, the shoes they do wear are more versatile than you think.
Gators? Where do you live? I’d hate to be a cop there!!!
Gators: Not in my neck of the woods in the Phildelphia area, but I’ve seen a few episodes of COPS wherein they answered a couple of calls because gators were in someone’s yard or garage in FLA. At least once the cops had to get 'em and tape 'em up. One time animal control came out.
The point is that cops shoes ain’t sneakers, they ain’t boots, and they ain’t dress shoes - they are a good all around shoe from the ones I’ve seen and worn (thanks to my father-in-law who gave me a hardly used pair)
Sorry for the (slight) hijack, but along these lines, wouldn’t it be better for ALL of a cop’s clothing to be a little more geared toward chasing someone? Or is it, it just looks relatively nice?
Running shoes may be suitable if you’re running a 100-yard dash, but for heavy duty work eight hours a day or more, they’re about as useful as glass slippers. They fall apart and your feet hurt a lot after awhile.
The most comfortable working footwear I ever wore, by far, were Army boots. After you work them in a little it’s like wearing socks; they feel great. Cops wear shoes that are of similar build and weight.
Because they’re not playing tennis. 
If you mean running shoes, as the other posters assume, I can’t agree with RickJay. A good pair of running shoes are very comfortable if they fit properly. Hey, some of these shoes cost over $100! I’ve never worn them 8 hours a day, but I don’t see why they would not be comfortable all day. On the other hand, I found Army boots very uncomfortable. We had to run in them every morning. Believe me, running shoes would’ve been much better.
That said, as posted prior, police officers need sturdier shoes for all they do, but IMHO they’re not going to find any as comfortable as a good fitting pair of running shoes.
Hey those ‘police shoes’ seem to fit my need - I frequestly walk a few miles a day and sometime run several blocks to catch a train. Where can I get some?
The Better Half wears these to deliver mail but I never paid much attention to where he got them. So I went upstairs and asked him. He put down his pocket computer long enough to giggle helplessly for a while, and when he was finally able to speak, he began listing stores starting with, “Um, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Farm & Fleet, Toys R Us…”
I said, “What? Come on, be helpful, somebody wants to know in GQ.”
He said patiently, “Look, they’re just men’s work oxfords, they sell them everywhere.”
I said, “Oh”, and went back downstairs. He called down the stairs after me, “Probably Farm & Fleet has the best selection…”
So. Do they have Farm & Fleet where you live? Or Rural King? It’s a “farm and home” store.
They’re not “street shoes”, in the sense of being “dress shoes”. They’re “work shoes”.
And, 18 years of carrying mail has established to his satisfaction that the running shoes ain’t been built that can cope with 8 to 12 hours a day of pounding pavement. Only a well-constructed leather “work oxford” can do that.
Or Army boots, which unfortunately the U.S. Postal Service does not allow as part of the uniform, to the deep regret of the footwear connoisseurs down at the Post Office.
Well, I once ran a 50-miler and it took me 8 hours and change. And I did not wear “a well-constructed leather work oxford” either, but a well-constructed pair of running shoes. There are runners who run much more than that (real crazies). There is a guy in SC who runs a 50-miler once a month. Some crazies run for 24 hours straight. A few years ago they had a run in Hawaii -actually around Hawaii- covering 50 miles a day for 7 straight days.
And running has at least 3 times the impact that walking has.
Cops wear street shoes because they don’t need to run fast. The criminals need to slow down, that’s why police have guns.
IANAC, but . . .
Tennis shoes don’t hold up to everday use as well as a good pair of leather shoes. Tennis shoes are not as water repellent as a leather shoe. Cops have to walk in all kinds of terrain, “cop shoes” have stiffer soles for more support and may have metal shanks to prevent punctures from nails, etc. Dress-style shoes look better with a uniform.
Some jurisdictions will allow cops to wear black tennis shoes. There are special retailers for cop clothing, you could probably Yahoo under, “Uniforms”.
barbitu8, take a look at how often those runners replace their shows. Many hardcore runners replace their shoes every few months.
Right, but it’s not an “impact” problem, it’s an “arch support” problem. “Running” by definition is different, physically, than “trudging along”. When you run, you run mainly on your toes–a running shoe is designed to spring your heel quickly up off the pavement, so it has a flexible sole.
When you trudge along, you trudge along on your whole foot, heel to toe. This creates a completely different set of stresses on your foot, ankle, and, especially, arches. It’s very hard on your arches. So what you need for comfort if you’re going to be trudging along for hours and hours, especially on cement pavement, is not a running shoe’s springy sole, but a fairly stiff sole, for arch support. Hiking boots and Army boots have stiff soles, for comfort in long-distance “trudging along”, as do men’s work oxfords.
And as do nurses’ orthopedic oxfords, and serious Reebok “walking” shoes.
Does Reebok make jocular walking shoes? Reebok is not the only company that makes walking shoes that are quite well constructed. And the problem you refer to in that post is a propos if you have high arches. In that case, an arch insert in a running shoe will do. Better yet, are good walking shoes since they are made for that purpose.
thanks again DDG
You’re all overlooking the most important reason: Tennis shoes have toes that are too soft for kicking people.
Try here: http://www.galls.com
Its kind of the general store of the public safety world. I’ve never bought anything from them, but their catalog is usually sitting in the men’s room for some high-quality reading during long visits. YMMV.
If you have to kick the livin’ shit out of someone, (only in the line of duty of course) you can’t do it in a pair of light-weight shoes.
I used to wear tennis shoes exclusively until I got my first pair of Doc Martens, and have never gone back. I used to go through a pair of shoes every 4 months or so, while my first pair of Docs lasted me well over 3 years, and were still comfortable when the sole was finally worn through. Docs (at least the ones I wear) are pretty similar to Army boots in design, I think, just plain leather lace-up boots.