Since the officer also comes with a knife, it may be a wise idea to abandon this as well, just don’t drop it while he’s running. I’ve caught officers brandishing their pistols instead of their binoculars even after I’ve told them to hold fire or only return fire. The problem persists even if you change his firing mode.
If he gets into a situation where he needs to use it, he’s generally as good as dead anyway. Because of this, it may be beneficial to have the officer abandon his pistol when you spawn him. One of the problems with this unit is that he will often times switch away from his binoculars in favor of his pistol for whatever reason. Although the officer is equipped with a pistol for self-defense, his best weapon is the binoculars that he starts with.
