Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Atlantic City, New Jersey (for the first time ever in my life) to attend, and work at, the Police & Security Expo. Arriving the day before the "show" floor opened I got to set up the Cygnus booth and take my time walking around the expo floor seeing what various vendors were going to be showing off. By the time the show floor opened the next morning I knew exactly what I wanted to see. Thankfully, it was what Cygnus (Officer.com) wanted me to see.
One of the busiest booths was BAE Systems. Now owning a number of well known companies in the law enforcement industry, BAE's "booth" was actually (I think) about the size of six (maybe eight?) regular sized booths. In that area was Safariland, Hatch, Savvy Body Armor, Hiatt (handcuffs), First Intercom, ProTech armor and more. Some of the highlights were:
- Safariland has a new platform for their holsters and accessories that is fully MOLLE compatible.
- Hatch (which is forty years old now) had a full line of gloves on display and they were showing off a new design specifically for the needs of K9 handlers.
- Savvy Body Armor is specifically made for female officers but the fact that every vest is custom fit to the officer makes it unique in the armor industry.
- Hiatt handcuffs are now available in different colors and they had a couple of see-through pair to show the inner workings. I learned stuff I never knew about handcuffs before.
- First Intercom was showing off their interoperability system which, if installed, automatically initiates at scenes involving multiple players from the public safety field.
- ProTech Armor was showing off the Titan Assault Vest, specifically designed for the patrol officer responding to an Active Shooter / Immediate Response situation. Well thought out.
Since I'm a motorcycle rider I enjoyed visiting in the BMW Motorcycle booth and the Johnny Pag Motorcycle booth. Both companies had some new bikes to show off and the motorcycles were unique in their own way. I was previously familiar with the BMW bikes but had not heard of Johnny Pag. What I saw was a 300cc bike that gets 65MPG. THAT is easier on the gas budget.
BLACKHAWK! was on hand and I got to talk to them about their Integrated Tourniquet System (ITS) as well as their new cross-draw SERPA holster for the TASER X26 or X26C. The ITS has eight tourniquets in each uniform (four in the pants and four in the shirts), preplaced to be of highest value to today's warrior - whether (s)he is a soldier or law enforcement professional. Designed by an Army Special Forces field surgeon, the ITS has potential to save an awful lot of lives that would normally be lost to extremity bleeding. The SERPA holster for the TASER functions just like their normal SERPA duty holster and will secure the X26/C with or without a cartridge in place.
I-COP was there showing off their in-car video system with a unique intended purpose. NOT just to be used for court evidence, the video system was specifically designed for constant surveillance and analysis to support Community Oriented Policing. That's an interesting concept.
KustomSignal's booth had two interesting pieces of gear. The Raptor RP-1 RADAR system that looks nothing like a conventional RADAR system was on display. Using relatively thin square antennas and a pretty small control head, the Raptor doesn't look like what most motorists expect a RADER unit to look like when mounted in a police vehicle. The other piece of equipment was an on-board video system for motorcycles. With space at a premium, KustomSignal has to find a way to really make the system compact. They did a good job.
L3 had two separate booths. One was dedicated to the EOTech holographic weapon sight system while the other was displaying their Flashback 2 Mobile Video unit. I've long been a fan of the EOTech holoscope and I found something in a different booth that adds to its versatility.
In the TSSI booth there was a Pariscope Urban Weapon Site being demonstrated. This unit, that will quickly attach / detach from any weapon with a picatinny rail system, allows the user to look through his sights from the side. That means you can shoot from behind cover without having to have your eye lined up behind your sights. You can keep your head totally behind your cover. Laying down behind a curb? You can shoot the weapon while aiming by looking straight up into the pariscope - perpendicular to the sight line. AND, it can be used for instructional purposes. As the student shooter is firing, the instructor can look through the pariscope and see what the student shooter is seeing. As a firearms instructor I have a deep appreciation for that.
Trijicon also had a new sight on display: the RX-30. Well known in the law enforcement and military communities for their scopes and sites, Trijicon has developed a pretty compact unit to support fast and accurate rifle fire. In today's world of increasingly frequent Active Shooters, such sights are a boon for the patrol officer.
Zistos was displaying and demonstrating their portable network video surveillance system. With remote cameras and integrated monitoring on a single unit, the "perimeter in a box" may prove to be of high value for law enforcement SWAT units.
Tiffin had their Smart Tracker set up and it was pretty interesting as well. This system provides for simple and automatic inventory tracking by way of Radio Frequency ID chips (RFID). For agencies that have officers constantly signing equipment in and out, this system can fully automate tracking and keeps logs of who has taken what from where.
And last, but far from least, was US Armor's triple wide booth. US Armor was displaying some newly designed soft armor as well as their Baker Batshield product. The Baker Batshield is a soft armor collapsible shield ideal for rapid response by patrol officers to high risk situations. Somewhat hand in hand with the Batshield, US Armor had their Shadow Shield on display. This free standing shield is mirror coated so that it reflects back the environment it's placed in. Put it in the middle of a school hallway and someone looking down that hallway sees hallway floor... Neat.
What made the show a bit of a challenge was the Officer.com wanted to do more than provide written coverage of these products, vendors and interests. SO, you can click on the link below to visit our Video Network where we have interviews and video presentations from all of the above. Just click on the link and then select "PSE 2008 Coverage".
Happy Fourth of July!!!
