The Official Police was a rugged, no-frills revolver designed for hard duty.

Unless you are a complete newbie to firearms, or have been living on top of a mountain in Tibet for the last century, you are aware that from the 1870s until the middle of the 20th century the terms "Colt" and "revolver" were synonymous in the police world. Colt revolvers were the most popular law enforcement sidearms in the world, and no Colt product personified the law enforcement handgun better than the Official Police Revolver.

Colt's first swing-out cylinder, double-action revolver, the Model of 1889, was adopted by the U.S. Navy, followed by the Army three years later. The cylinder was locked in position by a sliding latch on the left side of the frame, which was connected to a pin that entered a recess in the center of a rotating ratchet at the rear of the cylinder, locking it securely in place. The cylinder was mounted on a crane so it could be swung out to the left where pushing on the ejector rod activated a star-shaped extractor, extracting the spent cartridge cases simultaneously.

The Model 1889 was sold commercially as the New Army & Navy Model Revolver and proved to be quite popular. In 1899 S&W introduced its .38 Hand Ejector Military & Police revolver, which would be Colt's main competition in the law enforcement market for the next 70 years. But just as important was the new .38 S&W Special cartridge introduced at the same time, which pushed its 158-grain lead bullet to a rated 850 fps producing 200 ft-lbs of muzzle energy and was significantly more powerful than the .38 Long Colt.

Since the 1870s American police forces had generally used .32-caliber revolvers. With the dawning of the new century, however, the trend began to turn towards larger calibers. By the second decade of the 20th century, .38-caliber revolvers were outselling .32-caliber revolvers among police by a considerable margin, and Colt products were the best sellers.

In 1908 Colt introduced the Police Positive revolver chambered for the ".38 Colt Special," which was nothing more than the .38 S&W Special cartridge with a different headstamp. The Police Positive was very popular, and it and a short-barreled version called the Detective Special remained in production until the 1980s.

According to Paul, Colt's Official Police was the first choice of American police agencies for one-third of a century.

Also in 1908 Colt introduced its New Army revolver, which was a redesign of the New Army & Navy. The frame and trigger guard were reshaped to make it more comfortable and attractive. Cylinder rotation direction was changed to clockwise, and lockup was improved with a single peripheral recess for each chamber engaged by a bolt at the rear of the cylinder. Also, the fixed firing pin on the face of the hammer was replaced with a pivoting unit.

While the Police Positive Special and New Army were both chambered for the .38 Special, the latter revolver was based upon Colt's larger I-Frame and weighed approximately 10 ounces more. Whether the customer needed a holster-sized revolver or a lighter, more compact model, Colt's pair of roundguns soon captured the lion's share of the American police market.