What is the ultimate flashlight build for a NYPD officer?

My brother is graduating from the NYPD Academy this December and has asked for a Streamlight or Surefire rechargeable flashlight to replace the standard issue C cell maglite. Instead of buying him an expensive Surefire, I'd prefer to spend the same amount of money building him the brightest, most reliable flashlight I can. This flashlight would be used primarily for car stops (20-30 minute max run time), but may be occasionally used for longer (60-90 minute run time). For this reason, I'd like to have a high-power and low-power setting, as well as a strobe function. It needs to be extremely reliable. This will be my first build (but I do have an Engineering degree), and I'd appreciate any help with picking out the parts. Flashlight can be LED or incandescent, although from what I've read I am leaning towards LED.



This is a spare-no-expense flashlight! It WILL be used in life/death situations. If you were to build the ultimate flashlight with the above parameters in mind, what would it be?