Fewer and fewer cops carry police batons nowdays?

[JEDI]

PR24 Police Baton

I remember these things from the 80's cop shows.

But nowadays, i dont see many cops carrying them during general patrol.

Why has the police baton gone away?

 

[Electric Amish]

A lot of them carry the collapsible batons because they don't get in the way as much.

 

[Injury]

Stun Guns.

/thread

 

[Dacalo]

Just whip out the gun.

 

[jtvang125]

Cause the SOP now is shoot first, ask questions later.

 

[imported_Devine]

Didnt Rodney King get the s**t beat out of him by one? That might of had something to do with it but I think the notion of less violent, less lethal ways of taking down a suspect like with a taser is more effective. They used the baton instead of the gun cause it didnt kill you but the baton can still do a lot of damage. Also you want to keep your distance from a suspect so they cant go for your gun or stab you with a knife. GET OUT OF MY BUBBLE!

 

[jhayx7]

They are too bulky to use. Most cops carrys ASP's now; with a flip of the wrist it goes from the size of a mini-mag light to a full lenth baton.

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: JEDI
PR24 Police Baton

I remember these things from the 80's cop shows.

But nowadays, i dont see many cops carrying them during general patrol.

Why has the police baton gone away?

Because the criminals are carrying AK's nowadays

 

[Canai]

Yeah and I think the collapsible steel ones pack more wallop than the older ones too.

 

[imported_Pablo]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: JEDI
PR24 Police Baton

I remember these things from the 80's cop shows.

But nowadays, i dont see many cops carrying them during general patrol.

Why has the police baton gone away?

Because the criminals are carrying AK's nowadays

As opposed to the 80's when they carried swiss army knives :roll:

 

[Drakkon]

why carry a baton when you got bear mace and a stun gun?
now they can get a perp to the ground without causing any major bodily harm and have to threten him even less

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: JEDI
PR24 Police Baton

I remember these things from the 80's cop shows.

But nowadays, i dont see many cops carrying them during general patrol.

Why has the police baton gone away?

Because the criminals are carrying AK's nowadays

Good try but in 2005 only 9.1% of officers assaulted were assaulted with firearms. 55 law enforcement officers were killed feloniously in the line of duty in 2005. 5 were killed with their own handgun and 4 were killed with rifles, 5 were killed with vehicles. In sumary handguns were the overwhelming killer with 42 of the 55 deaths. Cars killed more officers than ak's, and if you're talking about just assaults and not murder officers are assaulted with weapons less than 10% of the time. These numbers come from the 2005 Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted section of that years Uniform Crime Report.

I hate to let facts get in the way of gun bashing paranoia but...

A great number of officers still carry ASP batons, but they also have options like OC and tasers. There's only so much that can fit onto a bat belt.

 

[Superwormy]

PR24s are a huge liability for many officers. Officers generally receive *very* little training with them, and lawsuits are common because there are only a few places on the body you can *legally* hit someone (i.e.: no head shots, arms, but not elbows, legs, but not knees, belly shots, but no sternum shots)

Asps (retractable batons) are prefered because its harder to break things on people and easier to use (less training required to be comfortable with it) and they're easier to carry around.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Aside from there being fewer beat cops, I think the police are missing a great psychological tool. ASP batons my perform better but don't have the psychological impact that a beat cop playing with his baton has as he walks into a confrontation.

 

[snoopdoug1]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
A lot of them carry the collapsible batons because they don't get in the way as much.

winner... my bro is a cop, he's got the collapsible one.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
A lot of them carry the collapsible batons because they don't get in the way as much.

/yup

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Collapsible baton=blunt object equivilent of a switchblade

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Asp is the direct replacement, but they're trying to phase it out with OC spray / Taser

- M4H

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
why carry a baton when you got bear mace and a stun gun?
now they can get a perp to the ground without causing any major bodily harm and have to threten him even less

Cause it's funner to beat the shait out of some mugger or thief than it is to just spray them with something.

Plus you can always spray them after you baton them :laugh:

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: Canai

Originally posted by: Drakkon
why carry a baton when you got bear mace and a stun gun?
now they can get a perp to the ground without causing any major bodily harm and have to threten him even less

Cause it's funner to beat the shait out of some mugger or thief than it is to just spray them with something.

Plus you can always spray them after you baton them :laugh:

If you spray them before they're easier to hit.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Canai

Originally posted by: Drakkon
why carry a baton when you got bear mace and a stun gun?
now they can get a perp to the ground without causing any major bodily harm and have to threten him even less

Cause it's funner to beat the shait out of some mugger or thief than it is to just spray them with something.

Plus you can always spray them after you baton them :laugh:

Have you ever actually been sprayed, or seen someone sprayed with OC? If that is your idea of "fun", then trust me, it's plenty fun... Watching buddies get sprayed for training so that they could carry it was wonderful. I'd rather get shot than sprayed again though.