LEO'S: How useful is strobe in the "real world"?

[Robocop]

Victory I believe that is a good way to say it when you say not to use strobe on a person who is actively attacking and in a much shorter way I believe you are saying the same thing as myself. For non-aggresive threats it may be of some use or non-compliant is a good way to say it.

I very much appreciate any information others can give and I do know that I am by no means an expert on anything. I do hope I did not sound angry in my previous posts as that is not my intention. I truly do want other officers to go home every night and as such will give any advice I may that will help that happen.

I also seem to enjoy writing all night and will often go off on long winded replies when a few words would probably get the same effect. Good luck brightnorm with your thread as you will most likely get many different replies.

 

[brightnorm]

... I hope this does not take this thread off track as I am seriously attempting to answer the "real world" part of your question brightnorm. I am not quoting from some instructor or that new tactical magazine I got in the mail or even from what is the most popular novelty....I am giving you some real world experiences and what the 900 officers in my dept. find works best.

I realize that and appreciate it.

BN

 

[victory]

robo, we're very much alike in that regard. Like you said, I like to see good people keep on living their good lives, so I'll put whatever little I know out there to help people do that.

Anyway, it's folks on the intenet, not the dude backing you in the stack, what's the worst thing that can happen to you if they don't listen?

 

[ElectronGuru]

So to summarize:

The 'stun effect,' for which 99% of strobe features are marketed/believed, does not exist.

Useful for signaling, as in gaining the attention of people who are not already paying attention to you. Like a battery powered flare.

Can be used to avoid being tracked, but not as effectively as a momentary switch, which would permit control over when the light is actually on. lighton-view-lightoff-move-lighton-view-lightoff-move-lighton-view-lightoff-move.

Crowds may respond because it 'looks' serious/threatening/official.

Meanwhile, its harder to see/view the subject, impeding both movement tracking and identification.

Fun!

 

[victory]

So to summarize:

The 'stun effect,' for which 99% of strobe features are marketed/believed, does not exist.

Useful for signaling, as in gaining the attention of people who are not already paying attention to you. Like a battery powered flare.

Can be used to avoid being tracked, but not as effectively as a momentary switch, which would permit control over when the light is actually on. lighton-view-lightoff-move-lighton-view-lightoff-move-lighton-view-lightoff-move.

Crowds may respond because it 'looks' serious/threatening/official.

Meanwhile, its harder to see/view the subject, impeding both movement tracking and identification.

Fun!

1) The "stun effect" is a lot of marketing. It's not a phaser. I would expect any amount of "stunning" to last somewhere between zero and 1 boyd cycles

2) Excellent for signaling

3) The strobe function should be on a momentary switch. as for what it does, as i quoted before: "Strobing lights disrupts the subject's depth perception, spacial orientation, balance and degrades their peripheral vision". This is all to varying degrees. This may offer more advantages than disadvantages on a non-compliant person who is not actively attacking you, but should really be reserved for that sort of situation.

4) Perhaps.

5) I wouldn't recommend it for target identification. Many have said that it is very hard to quickly discern shoot/no shoot under such conditions.

 

[M@elstrom]

I understand the reasoning behind the application of strobing light, essentially a pulsating light source doesn't allow significant time for the eyes to adjust, I recall an application method (used locally IIRC) whereby the "standard" 1 mode incandescent light was used in the "Ice Pick" style of hold sweeping the opponents face... this was employed with Mag-chargers and similar sized lights with the benefit of having the flashlight in a "ready" position should the need for an improvised impact device arise :thumbsup:

One obvious negative to the application of a strobing light source is the potential for back scattered light to disorient the user, the effect is somewhat reminiscent of watching an old style movie OR slow motion scene with missing frames

"Don't strobe me Bro!" :laughing:

 

[Search]

A flashlight is first and foremost a lighting instrument, not a force multiplier.

That's my philosophy.



To answer the question though. I've never encountered a situation where a strobe would have been more effective than a bright light in general. Nor do I suspect I ever will look back and say, "Damn if I only had a strobe that would have been much easier".

 

[Dioni]

Personally I have never used the strobe mode except for traffic control or attention. IMO strobe is extremely usefull on these situations. Also, I dunno any special team which has made training on use of strobe.
Maybe someone who has participated in the Surefire Institute?

 

[The_virus]

I've never seen strobe used anywhere but accident sites or for signaling purposes. Red ones are used sometimes at checkpoints and speed traps to wave down a vehicle, as they look like a vehicle mounted light, and send the same message.

Strobes can be used for disorientation, but I've only seen them used in larger scale applications, mounted from fixtures in training scenarios and kill house traps.

 

[tadbik]

On a suspect, tried it once and it didn't do anything! Sometimes use it on traffic stops in dark areas when other cars are approaching and I want to warn them I'm there.

As long as it doesn't make the UI too complicated, it doesn't bother me if a strobe is included.

 

[bnemmie]

I've never seen strobe used anywhere but accident sites or for signaling purposes. QUOTE]

Same here. I've never had the chance to use the strobe function as it is advertised; "To overwhelm the dark-adapted eyes of a subject" or whatever. Like some people on here I have used it as a signaling device and it works very well for that purpose. I have never been trained to use a strobe light to compel compliance from a subject and would be interested to see how effective it can be. But at the moment it would not be my first tool I would use

 

[DaveTheDude]

I'm not a LEO, but I have been involved with facilitating several focus groups for a well-known manufacturer, concerning which features its new lights ought to include. This manufacturer NEVER suggests the strobe feature is for anything other than signaling, typically in a traffic scenario, and to a lesser extent in a search & rescue scenario (as when your a** is really, really lost in the back country, and you're desperate to signal that Beechcraft blithly going about its business at 8,000 feet).

 

[Crenshaw]

Hasn't this been discussed many times already? I remember reading a lot of threads in which robocop has already voiced his opinion and if I recall.. It generally always degenerates into a heated argument

And leos have always chimed in

Crenshaw

 

[msap]

In my experience strobe is no more effective than bright light. I've only seen guys mess with annoying drunks with them. That's my short 10yrs of real world experience. When I'm looking to buy a light for duty use or off duty, strobe is the last thing on my mind. In fact, I usually avoid lights with a strobe function. I think I own one light with it and I don't use it (the function).