One of the biggest challenges we face in law enforcement is the dark. The foul-mouthed evil doers that we pursue seem to favor the darkness for their deeds. When we look at crimes perpetrated toward citizens or police on patrol, we see that most of them occurred during low light conditions. Technologies have evolved to help combat the dark. Beyond a huge variety of powerful lighting tools, we have the options of night vision and thermal imaging. For this article we will focus on how each one works, its capabilities and some advantages and disadvantages associated with each.
NIGHT VISION
A respectable technology, night vision has been helping officers own the night for approximately 50 years. Night vision (NV) began its journey into the tactical realm during the Vietnam War. Troops embraced it quickly as they thought it would help them get through long dangerous nights. It wasn’t long until they realized its short comings. To keep it simple and not sound like a science lecture, I’ll tell you how NV basically works. NV units take the available light they detect and amplify it to produce a visual signal. That signal is turned into an image that the human eye can then see.
The key to NV technology is light. It needs some sort of light to able to “see.” Without it, NV doesn’t perform so well. This can be a big problem in the world of darkness when ambient light is scarce. The absence of light can be detrimental to NV, but the presence of light can also be a negative aspect to it as well. If you have never had the experience of using NV, I’ll use the following analogies to help you picture what I’m talking about. When too much light, such as head lights or a flashlight, hit a NV unit an event called “blooming” occurs. Remember when you were a kid playing flashlight tag at night? How about when one of your pals took a flashlight to your eyes when it was pitch black? BZZZZT! Your eyes were not able to see clearly after this drastic change from darkness to bright light. Well, blooming does this to NV. It can look like bright fireworks blinding you from your visual target. Not good.
If a bad guy is wearing subdued clothing or camouflage while hiding in the dark, NV can be tripped up just like our eyes during a search. Even if your target is moving in subdued clothing, it can be difficult to detect for NV. This will slow us down and lead us into a more methodical search. NV operations can also be slowed down because of elements such as smoke or fog. Add smoke, fog, or a heavy storm to the mix and now things are looking … well, we’re not looking anymore at all! NV doesn’t allow us to see through smoke, fog or other inclement weather conditions that may hamper vision.
THERMAL IMAGING
Now, we’ll take a look at thermal imaging (TI). Having gained massive popularity in the fire service for its ability to “see” heat, thermal imaging has allowed amazing advancements in law enforcement. TI has a unique advantage against the dark. It doesn’t require any light. Any level of light will not affect its image quality. It senses heat. It then translates the differences in temperature to an image that our eyes can see.
Keeping in mind that thermal imaging strictly deals with differences in temperature, TI paints an entirely new tactical picture for us. Bad guys can no longer deceive us with camo or dark clothing or hide in shadows and darkness. Even if just a small part of the bad guy is exposed, the TI will provide instant results. As you well know, police work calls manpower out in the darkest, coldest, harshest weather. A TI is not deterred by any of these elements. It can “see” through fog, smoke, rain and snow. Thermal imagery is a relatively new technology to law enforcement and the applications seem to be limitless. Cops on the beat are finding new ways to utilize its powers daily without the setbacks that occur with other low light options. Because of its unique ability to detect differences in temperature, confidence in thermal imagery will continue and its uses will grow.
Owning the night means utilizing the tool that is going to enable you to see in the dark without altering other tactical strategies. Whether using night vision or thermal imaging to accomplish tactical goals in the dark, the night is truly owned by the officer who utilized the proper technology with the right tactics. Stay safe.
