Tactical Use of Light

Figured I should stick to something I know a little about for my first thread. The tactical use of light. I am a full time SWAT / Patrol officer working in a pretty busy area 30 miles of Baltimore between RT 40 and RT 95.

I break down my tactical use of light into three areas-

Street contacts- typical walking up to people on self initiated contacts or response to calls. 6P carried in reaction hand. Most people get a slight blast of light in the face to see what there reaction is. Most of the time this pisses them off and they bring their hands up towards their face letting me see if they are holding anything. Normally I find that they open their hands as if trying to push the light away. This is good since I see palms and if they are trying to hide narcotics. If an assault were to ensue hammer fists into the face/neck, collarbone, chest and hands have proved effective. If I anticipate a problem taking someone into custody I have employed that the tactic of talking to an imaginary person over their shoulder, they turn to look and then look back at me, I give them a blast of light into the face and in that split second they close their eyes and I go hands on. This does not happen all the time but I have used it with good success.

Car stops- unlike what they are teaching in the academy I like to stop cars in the darkest areas I can so that I control all the light. I use my high beams; take down lights and spotlight to illuminate the suspect car. If done correctly you could film a picture behind the wall of light and the suspect could not see anything. I will make contact at the passenger side window being sure to never cross the path of my lights.

Building calls- working in the ghetto so long I seldom even attempt to find light switches and turn them on since they seldom work and just use my light. On a side not most light switches can be found approx 3.5 to 4 feet off the floor about 10-12 inches from the door frame. Good to know in the dark. When clearing rooms lights are used to strobe and never turned constant on until contact is made with a suspect. When clearing a house care must be taken to remember that you will get massive splash and reflections from mirrors and TVs. The reflection will have the same effect on you as it does the bad guy (blind the poop out of you if you fixate on it).

As previously stated my 1st line duty light is a SF 6P with a P60 bulb. I usually go through two batteries a month on nights. This is because of not using it for constant on. The eyes are the same as using pressure points. If you over stimulate them they will adapt to the stimuli. That is why I find it best to strobe for the best distraction.

When I am searching something I will go to an LED light Fenix or Gerber X5 since I need to only see, not stun.

After much research I settled on the SF L2 for off duty since most of the time all I need is the LED to navigate by but under stress you can use the reg lamp. Another plus I that the L2 is the closest light to being the same size a kubaton.

For tactical applications I don't like any clickie tail caps since if you are hit and the light is "on". Not a huge concern but big enough for me.

These are just some random thoughts.

Wow, great info. Thanks very much for sharing!

Damn good info. Welcome to CPF!

great post.

What certifications do you have, and where did you get certified?

Been through some low light courses. Nobody big time. Most of their stuff came from the Surefire Institute. Two of my closest training partners are full time NYPD firearms and tactics guys and SF certified. Besides my MA training over the last 9 yrs I have been to around 40 specialized couses from Firearms to Negotiations and am certified to teach at the state and federal levels. My area of expetise is human conflict within seven yards with the open hand, stick, knife and gun. The stuff in my first post is some of what I have come up with and teach.

Many trainers and academies would cringe at me saying to stop cars in dark areas. My stick and knife stuff goes against the grain so why should low light be any different


The first Skill Set of my Counter Attack Training is Open Hand and Impact Weapons. I advise people to have a pen in their hand during the day and a flashlight in their hand at night. A decent light is my absolute favorite weapon.

How does someone get certified at the federal level?

I understand the light at night, but why the pen in the day?

Teach at a DOD Police Academy.

No matter how cold it is most attackers will have there face, neck and hands unprotected and the three things needed to carry out an attack are sight, base and air. With a pen or flashlight in your hands you can use the concentrated force of the the weapon on the small surface areas of these targets to defend yourself.

The most important thing about a weapon is to have it when you need it. Drawing in the slow part. Even in the most secure areas it attracts no attention to have a pen or flashlight in your hand. How much better could it get then to carry around a piece of aircraft aluminum

To write up tickets and such.

Nah, that is what the dome light is for.

A well placed pen shot can really really hurt.

Excellent post! I agree with the non-clickie tailcaps for those times when the light is needed for more extreme situations. Plus, I think the clickie is not proven as much as the momentary on/off yet, esp. with some of them failing and getting stuck, plus the noise of that "click."

PM sent with some questions.

mercop said:

Nah, that is what the dome light is for.

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Your first post is true to life, I like to blast the eyeballs at least once with lots of lumens, been using about 900 t-Ls lately.

But after all that tactical bravado, really, you would go back into the car and write a ticket under the dome light? Maybe in bad weather, but that is how to ruin a perfectly good windshield when something high velocity comes through it.

Wouldn't a police officer have a difficult time justifying using a pen as a stabbing weapon, when there are so many less lethal weapons available to him/her?

In the case of stopping a car in a very dark place, after the "wall of light" was lost, say by a subject running from the car into the pitch black darkness, work against the officer? Who now is in the area where there is light when the bad guy now is in total darkness. Wouldn't that now give the bad guy the advantage?

This really gets me thinking. How big is the department you are on? How many officers?

DasRonin PM sent

DasRonin said:

Wouldn't a police officer have a difficult time justifying using a pen as a stabbing weapon, when there are so many less lethal weapons available to him/her?

In the case of stopping a car in a very dark place, after the "wall of light" was lost, say by a subject running from the car into the pitch black darkness, work against the officer? Who now is in the area where there is light when the bad guy now is in total darkness. Wouldn't that now give the bad guy the advantage?

This really gets me thinking. How big is the department you are on? How many officers?

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mercop said:

Many trainers and academies would cringe at me saying to stop cars in dark areas. My stick and knife stuff goes against the grain so why should low light be any differentQUOTE]

These ideas are not mainstream for sure and of course in extreme survival conditions anything goes but liability judgments indicate the public and courts expect certain limitations on police tactics and behavior and fully expect police to have an upper hand because of proper training. Your conclusions are considered more acceptable by current publications and training venues. If unique and unproven and mostly unacceptable tactics are employed and there is litigation over the outcome where do you think a jury or administrative judge will side with? Officers that would deploy some of the tactics described in the aforementioned posts would find an upstream battle to justify those actions in my region in litigation or department policy and procedure standards. Many instructors bearing private organizational certifications as instructors or those holding governmental instructor certifications sometimes go into business for themselves promoting their expertise. To judge the acceptability of a school and its curriculum one need only look to see the past customer list and look for Agency endorsement, the attendance of individuals is not an indices of acceptability.

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I say better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.

Northern Lights said:

Your first post is true to life, I like to blast the eyeballs at least once with lots of lumens, been using about 900 t-Ls lately.

But after all that tactical bravado, really, you would go back into the car and write a ticket under the dome light? Maybe in bad weather, but that is how to ruin a perfectly good windshield when something high velocity comes through it.

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More officers are killed every year in motor vehicle accidents then bullets. Being outside the car is more likely to be deadly in normal situation IMHO.

The last year I really worked hard core (now I do more supervising then call catching) was 2004 and I stopped over 1000 cars that year, most of them at night.

All I did was state how I do things which can be hard to get across in print. We can "what if" all day long. If my aunt had balls she would be my uncle.

I train more civilians than police. That is one of the reasons for my pen and flashlight statements. However, an officer is more likely to have a pen in his hand than just about any other item during a spontanious attack. I would not hesitate to use that pen at least initially until I could do something else.

Dasronin, check your PMs. I work for an approx 40 man dept.

mercop said:

More officers are killed every year in motor vehicle accidents then bullets. Being outside the car is more likely to be deadly in normal situation IMHO.

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Good point and that is an acceptable procedure for highway cops. You cut yourself short in your reply regarding the dome light. One situation is not universal, so sometimes a better explanation, especially for anyone not vaguely aware of our circumstances is due. The last time I took incoming fire I was glad I was out of the car and could get away from it.

Again, it all depends on when and where. I have written tickets inside and outside of the car. I do a huge ammount of car stops on US Rt 40 and side streets leading to the ghetto off of it. Just depends. Most of the time I use the small map light to write tickets by.

I also agree that one of the big problems I see in force on force training is students hugging what they see as cover that is actually concealment. In many urban settings these days cover is more of a myth since most things are only concealment. I teach movement and fire.