I have never understood why agencies stick to a "specific" round such as this. This round when tested with ballistic gel only SUCKS (for lack of a more accurate and simple descriptive term). In some cases it fully penetrated 15" of gel with almost no deformation.
I know this ammo is designed as a barrier penetration round and to be effective as such and have zero issue with that. What I don't get is the logic in using this round exclusively. If they are not engaging someone who's "protected" behind a barrier, the chances of full penetration and minimal expansion is very high.
Perhaps I'm an oddball, but I carry defensive rounds in my firearm that are defensive rounds and offer maximum expansion through little resistance. My back up mag however is marked, and loaded with a duty based round that is designed to penetrate barriers (glass, walls, doors, etc). In my training and experience, if they are behind cover it means I am too and I have time to drop my mag and load my secondary to engage if the need arose. However, in the wide open, that is not a luxury we have. Personally, I would rather be prepared to effectively stop the threat quickly with maximum expansion without having to worry about my round passing through similarly to a target based round because it doesn't hit enough resistance to expand.
The attached picture shows the Speer G2 rounds in various forms of expansion through ballistic gel.