Interesting!
I carry reloads in my off duty gun all the time. But department policy is to only carry issue while on duty. This appears to be the norm for every department nation wide. Reasoning is, as stated earlier, the lawsuit thing. I've heard this preached by every armourer and gun pundit out there...including the great Massad Ayoob. All of them claim that the use of reloads will get the pants sued off you and your department.
So....several years ago I started searching for any cases wherein the use of reloads has resulted in a judgement against a person or department. So far I have been unable to document any such case. I even wrote to Ayoob askin' for case file numbers to provide evidence that this has ever happened. He didn't reply.
What I think is going on is that the legal eagles and ammo companies have perpetuated a myth...a good sounding one...but a myth nevertheless. Indeed, the closest I've come to finding any real evidence of this sort of thing was a huge outcry back in the late 80s or early 90s regarding FACTORY ammo. Winchester was forced to pull their Black Talon pistol ammo off the civilian market due to bad publicity concerning how "lethal" they looked!?!?!
On duty? I'll carry issue stuff...I don' wanna get cashiered! But I don't worry about my off duty ammo at all!