Best flashlights for police use

Sorry to start yet another "which is best" thread, but I need a little advice. I am going back in to uniform patrol in the not so distant future so my questions relate to the best flashlights for uniformed patrol at night.

My only criteria for a light is that it's (a) durable and (b) reasonably affordable (under $150). Rechargable is necessary on a full size duty light but not on a smaller light worn on the belt.

I currently have a Maglite rechargable light that I bought 15+ years ago. I bought this light after seeing many Streamlights with bad switches and the Maglite charger lets you snap the light out easily as opposed to the Streamlight charger. But I do prefer the Streamlight's pre-focused beam. My Maglite needs a new battery stick and new charger, other than that the light is in good condition. First question - should I keep the Maglite rechargable and get the parts I need to restore it, or is there a better full sized duty light out there? The Ultrastinger looks nice because it's very bright but not as heavy and bulky as others.

Second question is about a smaller light to be worn on the belt. A lot of times it would be nice to not carry the full sized light but I still need a bright light handy on my belt. The Streamlight Strion, Surefire 6P and Pelican M6 all look like good choices. I like the recharge ability of the Strion but I like the extra brightness of the Pelican. Any clear winners in this category, maybe some that I've overlooked?

Thanks.

I you are comfortable with the Magcharger,Keep the mag light but upgrade the bulb and battery.

you might want to look into one of the larger chargeable Surefires or a SL stinger but you sound like your opposed to SL.

I would recomend the strion for a belt and "dang the big light is in the car" light.

and a Gerber Infinity ultra on a lanyard around your neck under your shift/vest with a handcuff key atached.

and an Arc4+ or E1e in your pocket or ankle carry ...

Welcome to CPF Odin, and why dontcha stay awhile!

In the Streamlight ilk, I like the Stinger XT HP. It's a nice size for a bright rechargeable, has a tactical switch, and I have an extra battery, car and AC chargers. I use it at home, but it would make a nice duty lite. Some have complained that the large head of the HP, digs into their waists (but they have attested to the ampleness of those waists!) The ultra and poly stingers are also nice.

As to your small light, the Strion is a nice rechargeable solution, but perhaps you want even smaller, like a Surefire E2e. It's de rigeur around here, but because it's tough, brite, nice fit and finish on the HA, and very compact. In the 6P and PM6 class, take a look at the Streamlight Scorpion, and the Surefire G2.

And last, but certainly not least, consider a Pila, like the GL3R. It's bery brite (130 lumens claimed), rechargeable, has LED tailcap, and can run on 3x123 as well as 2x150A Pila rechargeables. So, you can run it on Pilas and keep 3x123 on your belt for backup.

welcome again,
daloosh

I'll second what everyone said here; upgrade your MagCharger with a nimh battery and a WA bulb and get a 6p, E2D or PM6 as a belt backup...

Depends on how bright you want to make your magcharger, apparently it can get insanely bright. I have a PM6 and other than the finish being a little to fragile, the light output and throw is amazing.

Only problem is, if you use it often everyday the CR123 are going to get expensive.

Hi Odin, welcome to CPF.

CPFer Fivemega does awesome things with Maglites. Here is a link to one of them, a 2D Maglite modded to run an SL-20 on 6 NiMH 1800mAh AA batteries:

Fivemega Rechargable Maglite

What I like about his custom rechargables is that you don't have to take the batteries out of the light to charge them. Notice the plug that goes into the tailcap.

His prices are very modest and he knows how to get 500 Lumens coming out of a Maglite.

Here's a link to a CPF search on "fivemega":

CPF search for fivemega

hi,
welcome to cpf and greetings from germany /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif
i work as a german police officer in a town near frankfurt.
keep your magcharger, get a new 4 ah batterystick from ginseng (cpf member) and a WA 01160 bulb from flashlightlens.com and turn your old magcharger into a mc60.
thats 500 lumen for over 1 hour. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
for everyday carry on the dutybelt get a small led light. for better throw a 3w led or for more flood a 5w led. i use the surefire L4 with pila rechargeable battery. its small, bright a produces a wall of light. its perfekt for close to middle distance policework. runtime is 1 hour. but you can use every small led light with a 3 watt or 5 watt led. for me its important that i can use rechargeable batteries and a that i have a flashlight that is dropproof. it happend that i dropped my other surefires and the lamp assemblys broke. that can be a serious problem when you work as a leo at night. so use your old magcharger for the times you need brutal power and long distance throw and get a small led light for backup and general use. that is what i am doing (and i think at least one german leo and cpf member (ho71ko)too)
best regards and greetings from the oldworld
christian (mohr)

Thanks everyone for the fast responses. I think I'll take the advice of several who said to keep the Maglite and upgrade the bulb and battery. I did a bit of searching on this forum and I'm not sure if there are reliability issues with the WA01160 bulb, can anyone tell me if that would be a reliable and non-damaging solution for my light? I want bright, but I can't sacrifice reliability or damage the light. Keep in mind that this light will get extensive daily use.

And I'm not sure, but I may be leaning towards the Streamlight Strion for my belt because as Greg noted it can get expensive replacing batteries. I like the idea of recharging the lights since they will get so much use.

Honestly, after looking at the websites for various companies and reading this forum I wouldn't mind owning about a couple dozen flashlights, but that's not going to happen. There sure are a lot of good alternatives these days. When I bought my Maglite the only choices for rechargable law enforcement lights were Maglite and Streamlight. I remember when I bougth my first light (many moons ago) I think it was a "Kel Light" or something similar.

For your smaller light, I recommend a Mini-Mag 2 AA with a Sandwich Shoppe ( http://home.comcast.net/~theledguy/ and http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=TheSandwichShoppe ) conversion. Wayne Yamaguchi (dat2zip on this forum) has several drop in conversions, with different brightness levels; The best compromise for me is the "MM Reg WidOpen Lux 3". This is the Madmax regular with NX05 optics, but with a Luxeon III white emitter. I also have a Kroll switch, although the light will work with the original Maglite rotation of the head. About $55 for the sandwich. The changeover is easy.

Here are two good review sites:

The LED Museum http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/ledleft.htm

Imago Metrics http://www.imagometrics.com/FLReviews/FLR.home.htm

Acme

I believe the WA01160 will outlast the magcharger stock bulb. Just in case you drop it and blow it, you can order a second one and keep it in the tailcap foam as a spare.
Now I'm not sure if Ginseng still sells these 4ah nimh batteries though... You may want to check bst for one.
As for the 123 lithium lights, I know they canget expensive to use even at $1 a battery but they are intented to be backup lights.

my reccomendation would be keep the magcharger - either as stock or with the WA01160 - and get yourself either a Pila or a Surefire L4 running on Pila 168s batteries

The Pila lights (i reccomend either the G2r or G3r lights) run on CR123s as well as the Rechargeable Lions)
the L4 runs on 2x 123 or 1x Pila 168s
Keep the magcharger for long range use and the little light for backup/short range/tactical use
just my .02

[ QUOTE ]
Odin said:
Honestly, after looking at the websites for various companies and reading this forum I wouldn't mind owning about a couple dozen flashlights, but that's not going to happen.

[/ QUOTE ]
i believe you! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleye11.gif

The PILA GL3R is about the same size as a Strion but has a way nicer and brighter beam.
It allows the use of either the rechargeable batteries or CR123's

I use the GL4 on duty but the GL3 is a definite winner for duty use.

Another option is the G2 or G2Z with a PILA 3.7v lamp and 168S batteries. Small, bright and good quality beam.

id say moded maglight for sure or something heavy so if ya need to ya can use it to protect ya self

I have an agency supplied 4D Mag, but it is way too long and heavy to deal with. It doesn't have tactical switch for the rare gunfight, where you want that light off NOW.

After a "learning experience" during Simunitions training, I really came to appreciate how a flashlight could be as important as your gun, and a dim light was worse than nothing. I decided to spend whatever I had to for my safety. I now carry a Surefire M6 with high output lamp. I replace the batteries if they have been used for more than 2 minutes. Expensive? Yes, but possibly the difference that saves a life. For backup, I either carry a Surefire M3 with high output lamp, or my agency issued Streamlight Stinger (which I use for utility purposes to preserve the batteries in the Surefires).

hmmmn i wonder if a 3 d mag .useing 3 c,s to direct drive a luxIII and a spacer at end to take up space that the 3,cs leave but also a spacer to give it a little bit more weight at end to give a harder thump?

OK, you guys have me pretty much settled on the Pila G3R or GL3R. Which is great, because I was really looking for a small (belt carry) rechargable light that was *very* bright. I thought my only option was the Strion and had never heard of the Pila before finding this forum.

So now I have a couple of questions.

Why would I want the GL3R over the G3R? What am I going to use the tailcap LED's for? I read that the tail of the light glows in the dark - I don't want anything on my belt glowing because sometimes I don't want my position in the dark to be visable. Do they all glow or just the LED tailcap versions?

Where can I buy a Pila light at a good price? If someone on this forum sells them then speak up, because if possible I'd rather give my business to the folks who told me about this light than some unknown Internet seller.

I think the Pila G3 light will be perfect. It's small, bright, rechargable and according to other LEO's on this forum sturdy and reliable enough for daily usage. With some Li-Ion batteries it sounds like the perfect light for me.

ME

You can get your Pila light from J.S. Burly's

Jon is a CPF supporting dealer and gives first rate service. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Jon,

You had a head start. I had to get the link. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

I would say: you type faster than me, but everyone types faster than me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif