Many like to think of SWAT as an exclusive group. It isn't easy to get onto a SWAT team, what with all the training required. Well, there is an even smaller group, at least in the Los Angeles Police Department: the Special Investigation Section. The average time "on the job" for applicants is 15 years. You have to be a detective just to apply, and you have to have proven yourself with many successful investigations. Why? Because SIS goes after the baddest of the bad.

I flew out to Los Angeles to see the guns and the officers of SIS. What I found were not the fire-breathing chargers of many a police story. What I found was a dedicated group of officers who wanted to find the bad guys, apprehend them and then go home safely at night. How bad are the bad guys they search for? When I asked for a thumbnail description of the miscreants, one of the officers simply described them as "having a high propensity toward violence."

Hmm, must be pretty exciting, eh? No, the job (again, in the words of another officer) involves "sitting in a car 12 hours a day." Sitting and waiting, and when the bad guy shows up, or commits another crime, arresting him. Often with SWAT as backup, but sometimes by themselves. To do that, you'd want a dependable sidearm (and lots of buddies with dependable firearms, too).

The grips are distinctive, attractive and textured for a non-slip grip.

The features of the new Kimber SIS have been selected with the job requirements of SIS and the training program of LAPD in mind. First, it is an ultra-reliable Kimber 1911 pistol. In .45 ACP, of course. Standard bushing and recoil-spring design--no full-length guide rods or bull barrels for the LAPD. The barrel is a Kimber match barrel, properly fitted to slide and frame. The trigger pull is clean and crisp, set in the five-pound region, and the solid trigger (aluminum, no extra holes) lacks an adjustable trigger stop.

The frame is checkered 30 lines to the inch, and the frame has the corners rounded. The sight is a specially modified Kimber fixed sight, with the front face squared off. The LAPD Academy teaches officers who need to do a one-handed slide cycle to do it by pressing the sight against their holster, duty belt or other convenient object. While members of the SIS do not work alone, and often use long arms, they specifically requested a rear sight that could be one-hand cycled.

Kimber, in laying out the pistol, figured a way to incorporate the "SIS" of the unit into the cocking serrations, If you look closely, you'll see that the grooves are a stylized "SIS".