How Many Lemens Is Enough For Uniformed Police Work In A Typical Suburb? u

So, just for the sake of argument, with all the different LED lights to choose from nowadays, how many lumens is enough for a uniformed officer carrying the LED light on their duty belt? On the one hand, it mgiht seem like more is always better, but is it really? Say you are working traffic and making a few traffic stops. Is 150 lumens enough to light up an interior of a passenger car? IS 300 lumens better? What about the LED lights that will be much more? Are they necessary or is it just overkill?

I've carried a quark 123 2 for a couple years...multiple levels are the way to go: max when you need it, a little or a lot less when you don't. That said, I just put shiningbeam blaze on my duty belt...higher lumens and better throw on max, still have lower levels, and ui is better in my opinion...don't have to toggle through modes, I keep it set at medium and go up or down as I need it.

To answer the lumens question: I think, provided you have lower levels available, 200-300 in suburban area, more with throw if you work a more rural section.

The one thing that always worries me about these duty light suggestion threads is everyone seems to forget the pupil check - if someone puts an 800 lumen light in your eyes after driving at night, there's no way you'll even be able to keep your eyes open. Big output is a plus for checking an interior through tinted windows, but you'll also definitely need a few modes if you want to see anyone's face..

It really depends on WHERE those lumens are. 200 lumens from an E2DL is going to get a lot more work done than 400 lumens from a P60 drop-in, in my experience.

It's like asking "How much horsepower is fun?"

Well, 300rwhp in a 2200# car is a whole lot of fun! 300rwhp in a 4200# car is boring as hell, comparatively.

+1 to what N/A power said
You can use a cheap key chain light to read a license or look through a center console, but walking up from the cruiser to the suspect vehicle with that in your hand just won't do it.
On the other hand 300 Floody lumen might be perfect for inspecting the vehicle surrounding but using that a foot away from your face to write that ticket might leave you temporarily incapacitated.

Thr3Evo said:

+1 to what N/A power said
You can use a cheap key chain light to read a license or look through a center console, but walking up from the cruiser to the suspect vehicle with that in your hand just won't do it.
On the other hand 300 Floody lumen might be perfect for inspecting the vehicle surrounding but using that a foot away from your face to write that ticket might leave you temporarily incapacitated.

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E2DL FTW! It has enough oomph to punch through most window tint and can be used to spot things at a good distance, can disorient/destroy night vision very well due to high LUX, and can still be used for writing that ticket up close on "lo" mode, and there is no medium mode to screw around with. Further, the well-defined beam won't light up a whole house (windows) if you just need to search the hedge. Less complaints that way, and lowers your own signature on the environment, as well. Light where you want it, not where you don't. While it still has good side-spill for use indoors/close areas. The side-spill "bleeds" into the environment unlike a reflector, and is similar to the Malkoff M61, although less "punchy", it should work fine indoors or on a trail.

The police here usually use the Pelican7060LED which is 170 lumens. Due to the deep reflector, that's plenty from those I've talked too. They out throw my Zebralight sc600 by a fair distance too.

Connection said:

In a suburban area, I find that a light with 2 modes that starts on high always works best.
The high should be around 2-400 lumens and the low around 100.

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I think this is about perfect. Maybe a little lower on the low mode, but 100 is good.
Any citations that I write are usually writen in the squad so I have no use for a flashlight in there.