Every year, for perhaps the first two to three weeks, you can listen to any number of your friends talk about how they’re “back on the wagon,” or “back on the program,” and it’s all about losing some weight. It’s all about a healthier life. (Some of them actually maintain their resolution; others, not so much.) For law enforcement and other professionals who daily wear or carry required duty items, the weight of greatest concern, or perhaps easiest to lose some of, isn’t around their middle… well, actually it is. But it’s not their gut – it’s on their gunbelt.
Lower back problems, hip problems and other related health concerns are often attributed to the gunbelts we police officers wear, and the weight of the gear thereon. You would think that with advancements in technology, the items we carry would get lighter and in some cases – as we’re going to discuss – that’s true. Whether it be by a reduction in the actual weight of an item, or by combining a couple of items together in a versatile and useful design, the weight reduction without loss or lack of performance is a good thing. And, as we’ve all seen across the span of the last 20 years, the amount being carried by officers certainly isn’t shrinking.
Gone are the days of putting on your gunbelt, holstering your weapon, slinging your baton and picking up a radio at work before going on patrol. Those were the days when we had lots of room left on the belt and it wasn’t because of being overweight; it was because we simply weren’t having to carry that much. Gun, reload ammo, baton, handcuffs, flashlight (most often a loop while the light was forgotten in the car) and radio – if you had a portable.
These days the list looks more like: gun, reload ammo, radio, OC Spray, baton, flashlight, handcuffs, TASER (or similar), gloves, body cam (on belt or body somewhere), IFAK (or similar) and… the list goes on. Various solutions for carrying everything have been used and many of them move items from the belt to a vest (as one example) but that doesn’t do anything to reduce or remove the weight. What DOES actually reduce the weight is to change the design, without loss of functionality, so that the actual item carried weighs less OR you combine items so you carry fewer items without giving up the performance of those combined.
A little more than a year ago I received a box of items from Armament Systems Procedures, Inc. – more commonly known as ASP, Inc. – for test and evaluation. As I’ve been testing these products – and having other officers I know test some of them as well – I came to realize that each item performs as expected and when I looked at secondary benefits the weight caught my attention. Are we talking about POUNDS of difference? No. But when a gunbelt weighs seven or more pounds, if you can shave off a pound you’ve made a notable difference. If you have a 34” waist and are out of “landscape” to carry items, combining two into one saves space AND (usually) weight.
Through the advancements of technology, and working with industry experts who either have years of experience behind them OR have those years of experience but are still working the street, ASP designs have evolved with an eye on performance but with the consideration of space and weight savings carefully in focus. Let’s take a look at a few of the items that have been tested and identify the weight, space or both savings.
The ASP Eagle Equipment Belt: Although not marketed as a duty belt, but instead as an equipment belt primarily for training use, the Eagle Equipment Belt is a 2” wide, rigid heavy duty nylon belt. Quite thankfully, most agencies today have moved away from actual leather gunbelts except for ceremonial or formal dress uniform use. The rigid nylon belt saves a significant amount of weight and, more easily broken in than the traditional belt, contours better to the shape of your waist without losing the necessary rigidity to support the gear thereon. It certainly weighs less than traditional leather and we won’t even talk about the brass buckle that gets replaced with suitably strong polymer. This is both a weight savings and comfort gain.
The Talon Series Batons: While most of us are familiar with the ASP Friction Lock baton, our familiarity is with the steel 9” (closed) model. It opens smoothly and certainly does the job at hand, but it’s not light and you have to beat it on concrete to get it to close. Gone are those days. ASP has developed a couple of solutions: one to resolve weight and one to make closing the baton FAR easier. The airweight model batons from ASP weigh 45% less than their steel counterparts and are weighted in their design to maintain their impact effect when striking is necessary. The Talon Series incorporates a push-button release mechanism so that the baton can be “unlocked” and closed with one hand, without hitting it on anything, and in about one second. This is both a weight savings and a function/time gain.
Triad Flashlight Series: When LED flashlights first came on the market, due to the limitations of the LED “bulbs” involved, the flashlight demanded a lot of power to produce moderate levels of light (65 lumens being peak at one time). Today’s LED technology combined with digital circuitry has taken these designs and made them far more useful while actually reducing the weight by reducing the number of batteries required to drive them. Additionally, through the use of common batteries (AA, AAA), the cost of operating the flashlight goes down because you’re not always buying CR123 3V lithium batteries. Finally, with a rechargeable system, using the common USB connection that’s actually being built into so many cars today, the cost of batteries is all but removed across the span of years while your flashlight’s performance still pumps out 530 lumens of light for three hours on a single charge. I remember when generating 500 lumens required six 3V batteries and was considered “too bright” to be safely used under a lot of circumstances. We’ve certainly come a long way. Available in “Poly” and aluminum, the Triad Flashlights can be both a weight and cost savings.
ADDED NOTE ON LIGHTS: With roughly 80% of our lethal force engagements occurring in low light environments, the old adage of “Two is one; one is none,” certainly applies to flashlights. For years “back in the day,” we old-timers carried a large heavy flashlight in a ring on our belt (when we had to get out of the car) and, if we were tactically sound, a backup light of some kind. More often than not, that backup light provided very little useful light and got us laughed at by the people who wanted to know how we were going to use two lights at a time. Thanks to ASP there are now two other options for carrying a backup light that takes up either no extra or very little extra room and weighs next to nothing. The SCRIBE is a penlight that uses two AAA batteries and can fit in most pen pockets. It produces 190 lumens of light for 1.5 hours. On duty, or as an off duty light alternative, it’s available in four color combinations and handy to have with you. The Fusion Baton series combines an LED light as part of the tailcap in the baton, providing you either a second light OR your primary light combined with your baton. Providing 95 lumens of light, the Fusion solution does exceed our original criteria of 65 lumens minimum for a duty light (again, back in the day) without having to carry a light in addition to the baton on your belt. Given today’s technology and our better understanding of light need and use, I’d use the Fusion as my backup, a Triad as the primary and a SCRIBE as redundant backup.
Hinge Handcuffs: Way back in… well, about thirty years ago, one of the worst fights I was in on the streets with was a little guy who had been smoking “love boat” (marijuana dipped in PCP) for several hours before my contact with him. The first pair of handcuffs we managed to fight him into was a then-traditional pair of chain-link cuffs. He snapped them as if they weren’t there and the fight was on again to get him into a pair of hinged cuffs. Hinged cuffs are notably heavier than chain-link but there’s a strength that comes with that weight. ASP makes aluminum hinged cuffs that offer the same level of strength that we all like the confidence of but at a weight savings of 15%. That’s a weight savings without a loss of performance confidence.
CONCLUSION:
If you’re still carrying the gear you were issued ten years… or even five years ago, and you feel it at the end of each shift on your hips or in your lower back, take a look at your gear. Yes, it may well be coming out of your pocket to buy replacement kit (unless you’re the agency quartermaster), but the health and comfort benefits will be long term. Examine what you’ve got or were issued. How can you save weight? Increase performance? Expand functional versatility? All of the above? Resolve to make the necessary improvements.
For more information about ASP Inc. products, check them out online.
