How Many Lumens Is Enough For A Police Flashlight Currently?

I know that the topic of police flashlights comes up fairly often here, but I also know that things change as technology improves. Anyway, how many lumens is considered enough currently for a general police flashlight? I am not thinking of SWAT teams or search and rescue, etc., but just everyday police work. Like making traffic stops and searching buildings, etc.

I think 500 lumens would be a reasonable number.

Most of the coos I work with are required to carry the issued light, which is a stinger. For the one that isnt, I got him an Olight m18 maverick and he loves it on his night shift. It's about 500lm. Can't speak for the stingers, but I don't hear any complaints.

As a non cop but someone who uses blue light industry stores it seems that 500 lumens is a very usable amount of light as the other posters have stated.I would imagine the Led Lenser 7.2 is a good seller as many of our local coppers carry them.

The Surefire Fury P2X has dual output of 15/500 lumens, the 15 is great for checking documents and the 500 is a good output for searching vehicles or checking premises etc.

I've used one on the night shift and the levels are very good for the majority of Police work.

The disadvantage of dual output is that if you do have to use the flashlight tactically, which isn't just restricted to SWAT teams, them you are continually changing between low/high (the Fury always comes on in low first) unless the flashlight UI allows the selection of output prior to switching it on.

In summary I think that 500 lumens is enough however on a lot of occasions it will be too much.

As a retired LEO, I feel 500 lumens is adequate. I always carried at least 2 flashlights and one of them was 500 lumens. Sometimes you do not need a lot of light and I would use a lower powered flashlight for those situations. However, sometimes you need to really throw some light. 500 lumens always did the job for me. I have seen what happens to someone after shining 500 lumens in their face as they tried to run out of a closet they were hiding in.

500 seems pretty good. What I've come to realize through the years in a correct duty light are tint, beam profile, and runtime.

Example, during vehicle stops, my Pelican 7060's (160 lumens) focused hotspot penetrates tinted windows much better than my XT11 (820 lumens). The 7060 just punches through without the glare/reflections that the floody XT11 can produce from the vehicle paint or windows.

Lighting up an alley or the front of a residence, the XT11 clearly puts the 7060 to shame.

Searching a backyard or interior of a house, my Malkoff MD2's 320 neutral white lumens can distinguish colors a lot better than the bluish beam profile of the 7060 or the XT11.

So, it's just tough to find what one user finds ideal for the environment that you are working in. Is your beat urban with lots of ambient light that you need a lot of power, or is it in wooded area's like game wardens have to work with? A lot of my coworkers find the tint and beam profile of the Surefire Fury (500 lumen tac model) sufficient, although very few aren't going to get it bored for 18650's in the interest of warranty voiding from Surefire. The Fury is on the white/neutral side of tint so the reflections are manageable and the size is easy to carry.

I think you could easily get by with 200 lumens as long as it's focused. I wouldn't want more than 500 though as it can be blinding up close. And no multi mode lights for serious tactical use either. Single output with momentary rear clicky is what you want. If you need a secondary multi mode light for other situations fine, but your main light should be single mode only.

Brasso, I agree. The Fury and LX2 have vastly different outputs (500 versus 200), but due to the LX2's TIR optic, it focuses/throws the light much farther than it's output number indicates. Plus, with the LX2 you get two modes, but via a tactically sound switch whereas the Fury doesn't have that feature.

If I were a cop, I think I'd carry a Fury. From what I've heard from my couple of LEO buddies, once you turn on a light, it pretty much stays on for the duration of the scenario. They don't often "blip and move", from what I understand. These aren't high speed guys, just your typical patrol guys.

On a related note - what kind of beam profile for that bright light? Highly focused TIR optic? Or is more spill for close to medium ranges better?

Surefire has a story about an officer using a G2X (320 lumens) during the capture of the Boston marathon bomber. He was about 30-yards away, and the G2X served as the primary spotlight during the final minutes of the confrontation. It's a pretty interesting read.

http://www.surefire.com/truestories/tag/G2X-C/