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July 06, 2004
TigerLight CEO Responds to Question: "Should Officers Be Allowed To Use Flashlights As Impact Weapons?"
Maybe the question should be, "Should Officer's Be 'Forced' To Use Flashlights As Impact Weapons" or "Should Officers Continue To Use Obsolete Flashlights?"
HEBER CITY, UT - "The fact that flashlight use as an impact weapon is problematic cannot be disputed. Nor can the fact that officers will continue to use flashlights as impact weapons, so long as they are in the officer's hands when unexpected situations arise.
Decades of the highest level training has not prevented it. In fact, to prevent it without offering a superior option will only cost more officers and civilians their lives," opinions Michael Teig, President and CEO of TigerLight, Inc.
"Officers have been carrying flashlights for decades. Officers have been trained in the proper "use-of-force" by highly capable individuals, for decades. Chiefs, trainers, officers, safety committees and policymakers have, for many years, had the goal of minimizing the use of force necessary to handle aggressive and non-compliant subjects. None of this is new. The only thing that is new is each new news story highlighting the dilemma faced by all concerned.
The answer is not in telling officers they cannot use their flashlights to protect themselves, especially when they are forced to put the thing in their hand in order to see. The answer is not to make the flashlight softer, lighter or smaller, reducing the officers visual acuity and his own safety.
The answer is to replace the flashlight with a stealth, non lethal weapon that does everything the flashlight does, even better, and also enables a number of critical, revolutionary functions that neither the flashlight, nor any other tool, can enable. The answer is the TigerLightŪ Non-Lethal Defense System. I don't want to be offensive, but this is a 'No-Brainer' if there ever was one," says Michael Teig.
"By replacing obsolete and comparatively dangerous flashlights with TigerLightŪ Non-Lethal Defense Systems, you have provided the officer with an entirely new, safer and more appropriate way to respond in a use-of-force situation.
The officer is equipped with a stealth, non-lethal weapon that he can deploy in a fraction of a second, eliminating the need to use the flashlight as an impact weapon and eliminating a whole host of potential use-of-force problems. It is akin to providing the officer with a third hand.
This should not be a difficult decision. Never, in the history of law enforcement has an officer been able to approach every vehicle, every street interview, every situation, with a stealth non-lethal weapon in his hand and nobody knows the difference, until now.
Not only that, but the officer does it without giving up his illumination capability or his lethal force option." "Two things are critical, says Teig, the time the officer has to respond and what force option or options he is able to respond with in that time. If a flashlight in the officer's hand both increases the time it takes the officer to respond while reducing the options he has to respond with, as is the case with an ordinary flashlight, the probability of an undesirable choice, one that he or the subject pays dearly for, is dramatically increased.
You see, every other tool, including the flashlight, sacrifices at least one critical element of that equation. Only the TigerLightŪ Non-Lethal Defense System provides the simultaneous, synergistic application of lethal and non-lethal force. The officer can respond in situations allowing far less time. He can apply non-lethal force to one or to multiple subjects and lethal force to others, synergistically.
In my opinion, it is absolutely ridiculous to even have a discussion as to whether any officer should carry an ordinary flashlight or a TigerLightŪ Non-Lethal Defense System. Do you think you could ever get an officer who has used a TigerLightŪ Non-Lethal Defense System to go back to a flashlight? Not a chance. It would be like asking an officer who had been shot in the chest while wearing body armor if he would like to stop wearing it.
To debate whether to get rid of obsolete flashlights and replace them with the exceptional non-lethal capability provided by the TigerLightŪ Non-Lethal Defense System would be akin to debating the merits of seat belts. If you wanted to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative you could say, 'Well, what if my car flips upside down in the water and I can't get out of my seat belt and I drown?' That reasoning would sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of people to save the one that might drown. Comparing a TigerLightŪ Non-Lethal Defense System to a flashlight would make even less sense."
It works perfectly. Read the testimonials. It is incredibly tough. Look at the videos of it being thrown 50 feet through the air onto the asphalt, smacked with a baseball bat and run over with a heavy vehicle. Check out the tests done for the military. Most importantly, look at the lives saved by those using it and consider the lives that could be saved in the future.
This is an exceptional tool that ought to be in every officer's hand. Departments should make every effort to replace their obsolete flashlights as soon as possible. It's just the right thing to do. I realize I might appear prejudice since we manufacture this device, but the truth is that it has been at great sacrifice by many to make this exceptional product available. There are many individuals who have donated substantial time and resources simply because we know this is a tool that will save lives. It has already," says Teig.
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