blasterman
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,802
Saw my first city cop last night with an LED based torch. Previously the only things I've seen local cops cary are a mix of standard incans and HID, but this guy had a insanely bright LED torch.
Basically it was two cops pulling over some kids in a 'burgandy' Mustang in front of my house, and given they had been drinking I had about 20-minutes of pure entertainiment. Cops here are typically by the book and pretty fair, but if suspicious they'll turn over every molecule in the vehicle or the suspects looking for narcotics.
I'm not sure what the exact brand of the LED torch was, but the front bezel was huge. I also suspect it was P7 based given how bright it was. I have some cheap R2 lights I've modded, and for reference, his torch was much, much brighter. Looked similiar to this if anybody cares.
The main thing that struck me and left me very concerned was the color of his light. Since I work with a lot of different fixed lighting applications I've become used to the various bins and trade-offs of cool-white vs other colors. However, his light was the highest CCT I've seen a cop use, and was darn near that annoying high CCT purple'ish hue. I have Crees in all manner of cool-white bins along with Bridgelux, and the 5600k versions of those looked warm-white compared to that torch.
Cop walks up to one of the suspects who is now sitting on the ground - asks him if he had been drinking or smoking anything. Cops will ask this as typical procedure of course, but I doubt that torch could tell a stoned teenager's eyes from somebody with jaundice and kindey failure given the color rendition was so terrible. Or, barbituates from skittles. Grass....cement...pavement....same color.
A K-9 unit pulled up, and I had to refrain myself from making a comment about the dog having better color recognition under street lights than the uber-torch.
Which is why I brought up the description of the 'burgandy' Mustang, because it wasn't a burgandy mustang. It was candy apple red, but the uber-torch cop called it back to dispatch as 'burgandy' because that's what his light showed it as. Other cops were carrying what looked like standard issue incan based Mags. As an objective observation, it would seem they would be far better at handling crime scene details.
If I were the police chief or district attorney of this squad I'd confiscate every LED based torch and either mandate they be neutral white, or use Halogen/Incan before a judge or trial lawyer gets wise and gets a case thrown out of court. Witness testimony can often be cross examined if they're wearing contacts or not wearing contacts, so why isn't a cop carrying a torch that can't tell red from orange from brown?
If a vote were taken by our resident flashlight addicts though guess which cop they'd declare as having the better tools :ironic:
Basically it was two cops pulling over some kids in a 'burgandy' Mustang in front of my house, and given they had been drinking I had about 20-minutes of pure entertainiment. Cops here are typically by the book and pretty fair, but if suspicious they'll turn over every molecule in the vehicle or the suspects looking for narcotics.
I'm not sure what the exact brand of the LED torch was, but the front bezel was huge. I also suspect it was P7 based given how bright it was. I have some cheap R2 lights I've modded, and for reference, his torch was much, much brighter. Looked similiar to this if anybody cares.
The main thing that struck me and left me very concerned was the color of his light. Since I work with a lot of different fixed lighting applications I've become used to the various bins and trade-offs of cool-white vs other colors. However, his light was the highest CCT I've seen a cop use, and was darn near that annoying high CCT purple'ish hue. I have Crees in all manner of cool-white bins along with Bridgelux, and the 5600k versions of those looked warm-white compared to that torch.
Cop walks up to one of the suspects who is now sitting on the ground - asks him if he had been drinking or smoking anything. Cops will ask this as typical procedure of course, but I doubt that torch could tell a stoned teenager's eyes from somebody with jaundice and kindey failure given the color rendition was so terrible. Or, barbituates from skittles. Grass....cement...pavement....same color.
A K-9 unit pulled up, and I had to refrain myself from making a comment about the dog having better color recognition under street lights than the uber-torch.
Which is why I brought up the description of the 'burgandy' Mustang, because it wasn't a burgandy mustang. It was candy apple red, but the uber-torch cop called it back to dispatch as 'burgandy' because that's what his light showed it as. Other cops were carrying what looked like standard issue incan based Mags. As an objective observation, it would seem they would be far better at handling crime scene details.
If I were the police chief or district attorney of this squad I'd confiscate every LED based torch and either mandate they be neutral white, or use Halogen/Incan before a judge or trial lawyer gets wise and gets a case thrown out of court. Witness testimony can often be cross examined if they're wearing contacts or not wearing contacts, so why isn't a cop carrying a torch that can't tell red from orange from brown?
If a vote were taken by our resident flashlight addicts though guess which cop they'd declare as having the better tools :ironic:
