The LAPD just announced that they will be adopting the FN 509 MRD-LE as the new duty pistol for their ~10,000 officers. The LAPD was looking for a handful of features for their new service weapon, including the ability to mount as many duty rated optics as possible to the pistol to help improve officer accuracy. FN definitely has one of the best MOS (multi-optic systems) on the market from the factory and it appears that they did a handful of upgrades to the LE model over the standard; this is important to note because the 509 MRD-LE is claimed to have passed a 20,000 rounds endurance test without any issues.
Early on in the 509’s life a handful of social media giants had issues with their FN 509’s striker breaking within 5,000 rounds of ownership. This issue became so widespread that Apex Tactical actually designed an “improved” heavy duty striker to alleviate these issues. To my knowledge, FN never formally acknowledged this issue. FN also didn’t acknowledge the pure hatred people have had for hinged triggers and threw a hinged trigger into the standard 509 as well as the 509 Tactical.
I mention all of this because of the apparent upgrades that have been made to the FN 509 MRD-LE. FN maintained their industry leading optic system which is only beat out by the Agency Arms AOS cut… but they changed everything that consumers have been complaining about. They swapped out the hinged trigger for a new flat-faced trigger with a trigger dingus (like a Glock) and they installed an improved conical striker system. It’s fantastic to see FN making these changes to the 509… but it’s unfortunate that it seems the changes are only for the 509 MRD-LE… and not for consumer models (you know, the people that complained heavily about these very things).
Ranting over, it’s very interesting that the LAPD went with the FN 509 MRD-LE over a Sig P320 variant or just adopting the Gen 5 Glock for a variety of reasons. The P320 was just adopted by the military a couple of years over Glock and FN, and Glock has been the law enforcement standard for decades now. It will be cool to see if any issues creep up with the FN 509 MRD-LE now that it’s going to be used by one of the largest police departments in the United States.