When my first Dept. discovered that the, "smaller" officers, wouldn't take a shotgun even on a gun call they scrambled for an alternative. Out of the mis-mash of goofy ideas can the Ruger plastic stocked carbine in .40 S&W. Which would have made some sense to me if we carried .40 S&W side arms, but we were stuck with S&W 469's in 9 m/m.
I was a Patrol Sgt. at the time and they let me carry a M-14, (fiberglass stocked), in my unmarked, so at least there was a real long gun out on the road, sometimes. Some of the other road sergeants took an 870 out when they hit the road Eventually everybody and their brother Departments went to AR-15's as squad rifles and I guess that is still where we are today.
Anyhoo, we had to qualify with that Ruger carbine and it was a fun little toy. Big, easy to use sights, light and handy, but I had a problem with the whole concept of it being a long gun but only a tiny bit more powerful that a pistol. I wanted one when they traded them in to the arms dealer, only that time the dealer would not make them available for sale to the officers. Apparently they already had a deal to sell them all. I was only marginally disappointed, because I was not and still am not set up for .40 S&W. That said, for awhile you could pick up all the brass in .40 you wanted for free because no one reloaded it.