New features & training techniques modernize the standard baton
Take a look at older police photos—those black-and-white agency or patrol photos taken around the turn of the century up until the 1950s—and you’re likely to see prominently featured impact weapons. Often, these photos feature "coppers" displaying their wooden batons in their hands, truncheons or short "billies" of less than 18 inches. Many a ne’er-do-well was set straight or taken into control by the application of oaken stick to noggin. Since handguns were carried with little to no training, one can only imagine the baton training: "Hit ’em as hard as you can, son!"
Flash-forward to the 1970s and the TV show The Blue Knight. Based on former LAPD officer Joseph Wambaugh’s book of the same name, the show featured LAPD beat cop "Bumper" Morgan solving crime in his district. Morgan, played by actor George Kennedy, would walk along twirling or spinning his hickory straight stick on its lanyard.
The straight sticks of old and the methods the officers used with them bear almost no resemblance to the newer impact weapons and training that current police officers receive. But that doesn’t mean the concept itself is obsolete.
Now, I’m a fan of "remote control" tools such as pepper spray, kinetic energy impact munitions and Electronic Control Devices (ECDs), but I believe that modern police officers still need to carry some type of impact weapon. The advent of technology did not diminish their effectiveness. Too often, officers use empty hand strikes when they should be using a baton.
Modern Batons
In the early 1980s, when I started working security during college, wooden sticks made of hickory were still being deployed by officers and security personnel. Polymer batons were just becoming popular, often featuring a metal ball or "rib spreader" on one end for thrusting into a suspect’s abdomen. Police officers I worked with at the time at an outdoor concert facility had "sap pockets" on the outside of their trouser legs. These 2–3-inch-wide and 10-inch-long pockets allowed officers to carry saps—lead-weighted leather impact weapons—ready at hand. Standard sap techniques involved impacts to the head.
Officers also carried large aluminum Kel-Lite or Maglite flashlights. The standard size for cops was a four "D" cell battery light. More than a few suspects trying to fight the cops of the day were controlled with strikes from these heavy metal flashlights. Unfortunately, training, if conducted at all, was very limited and head injuries such as lacerations often resulted.
As a security officer at that time, I carried the newly released Monadnock PR-24 aluminum baton. A local police chief and martial artist showed me how to use it; I also studied the instructional booklet that came with it. As a deputy sheriff working patrol and in my early days as a street police officer with my current municipal agency, I carried a polymer straight stick stuffed between the driver’s seat and patrol car door. I tried to make it a habit to grab the baton, as did my partner, on fight calls or domestics but many times my Streamlight aluminum SL-20 was the "go-to" impact weapon of need. This was often the case with batons because they were inevitably left in the car instead of carried on the officer’s belt.
Several years later, Armament Systems and Procedures (ASP) came out with an expandable baton system. My agency chose the 21" version, and we carry it to this day. The standard ASP baton is a friction, taper lock design. To expand and lock, the officer must aggressively swing the baton downward or upward. Closing the baton requires the officer to rap it on something solid, such as concrete or black-top. ASP recently introduced the Disc Loc baton, which can be opened covertly by pulling the end outward to lock or using the standard opening motion. The Disc Loc can be closed by pushing the button on the end cap. Other batons from ASP, such as the Agent line, allow impact weapons to be carried by investigators or officers in plainclothes. Without an impact weapon, a detective or plainclothes officer can either punch a suspect or shoot them—with no intermediate force options available.
The AutoLock baton from Monadnock is a similar design. The AutoLock can be discreetly expanded by pulling, closes at the push of its end cap button and has a great "Super Grip" handle option as well as a polymer power safety tip for decreased injury potential on target.
Brite-Strike introduced the Flexaton Baton Integrated Light (BIL) onto the market a couple of years ago. The polymer two-section expandable Flexaton extends to 24 inches and includes a blinding 270-lumen white light in the end cap. Although I’m usually hesitant to use multi-task tools and weapons, the Brite-Strike baton hits hard, and you have the option of disorienting the suspect with the light prior to a strike, as well as having an impact weapon in hand while you’re conducting a field interview at night.
The Rapid Rotation baton borrows from the Okinawan Karate weapon called the sai. According to the makers, the Rapid Rotation baton can be used to strike with a conventional baton swing, to thrust with the handle end, to chop with the hand guards and to block and joint lock.
Recently my Canadian friend Rory Bochinski of Shocknife and Stress Vest fame emailed me that he was introducing a new baton into the police market. The KinetX baton is a reversible grip baton, which can be gripped and struck with either end. The result, according to the manufacturers, is that when striking with the thicker end more kinetic energy can be delivered on target. The design of the KinetX baton allows the officer to grasp the smaller tube as a grip based on the "race car" rubber grip end cap. KinetX describes the 21" baton as hitting like a baseball bat. A hands-on test was not possible as this issue went to press, but look for a field test soon.
Baton Training
The problem of injury potential with impact weapons can be mitigated with sound training programs. In the early 1980s I learned a lot from Mas Ayoob’s book Fundamentals of Modern Police Impact Weapons (1978; Charles C. Thomas). A heavy bag that I hung from the rafters of my home got a regular work out with my impact weapons over the years.
I was certified as a Pressure Point Control Tactics Impact (PPCT) weapons instructor in the early 1990s and later became an instructor/trainer in that defensive tactics and baton system. The pioneering work of my friend Bruce Siddle brought the science of motor learning to law enforcement subject control training. Bruce taught officers to use gross motor skills whenever possible.
The PPCT impact weapon program has three blocks and three strikes:
• Forward cutting block and strike
• Backhand cutting block and strike
• Forward fluid shockwave strike or block
In the PPCT system, large muscle masses such as the outside and inside of the thigh or muscles of the forearm are targeted to reduce injury potential. Secondary targets are joints and bones. The thrust of this targeting system (no pun intended) is to maximize control and minimize injury.
ASP has an excellent instructor and officer baton training program as well. ASP targets the "center mass of the leg" rather than specific muscle targets. In addition to the usual swings common in baton programs, ASP also incorporates "closed mode strikes," wherein the officer targets the suspect with the butt cap of the baton. Closed mode strikes are very effective in close confines or in situations where the officer does not have time to expand the baton or uses these close-quarter strikes to create distance so the baton can be opened.
The Filipino Martial Arts (FMA)—Kali, Eskrima and Arnis—have had a huge impact on modern police baton training. In my own training in FMA, I’ve had the good fortune to learn exceptional stick work and footwork from the late Eskrima Master Mike Inay, as well as Richard Bustillo and Marc Denny from Dog Brothers Martial Arts. I incorporate many of the single stick-on-stick drills and triangular footwork patterns I learned from them into my police defensive tactics instruction.
We start by using foam training batons placed on the ground to form a triangle. Officers then practice simple evasive and combative footwork by stepping around the triangle. Using foam batons, they learn how to swing a stick by creating downward, upward and diagonal figure-eight patterns in the air. They then partner up with another student and practice stick-on-stick drills. Touch drills, where they learn targeting and incorporate the footwork taught earlier, are next, followed by power development by striking air shields with foam batons. Only after the mechanics are learned do we then strike training bags with real batons. Finally, all of these basics are practiced on an instructor wearing a padded training suit.
Parting Shot
A strike with a baton increases the kinetic energy impact on target more than a punch or kick, is less injurious to the officer and results in fewer lacerations and bloody injuries on the suspect. Used properly, with powerful strikes and blocks, the baton can control a resisting suspect with a minimal number of blows. Ever since cops have pinned on stars and badges, they’ve sallied forth into the night carrying some type of striking weapon. Modern batons make that carry easier than ever, and effective training programs allow officers to increase their safety while minimizing their injuries.
And that is a swing, a hit and a homerun for officer safety.
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