Duty belts have usually held terrific importance within the police force. It is the final piece of uniform system we placed on before we head out the door and it’s miles nearly always the first obligation item we put off while the shift is over!
We hate ’em, we cuss ’em, we squirm around all shift at the same time as sporting them, however duty belts function a necessary approach by using which to carry that each one-vital police gadget even as leaving our arms unfastened.
Duty belts restrict our moves, preserve us from sitting well in motors and cling us up on things like seatbelts, etc. Even as exiting our automobiles.
The trick has always been to put on the exceptional obligation belt we will, while striking that important compromise between protection and trucker hat comfort.
A little history: In the old days, Coppers best needed to bring a few items: a weapon and a holster, perhaps a nightstick (which became typically twirled on a leather loop and held by means of the wrist, now not on the duty belt) a “name box” key and a fixed of handcuffs!
Contrast that with present day officer, who from time to time resembles a modern % mule, loaded down with safety device.
The obligation belts of these days carry a mean of (10) ten kilos of device, and once in a while even keep up to fifteen pounds. The gadgets carried at the contemporary duty belt may additionally encompass: (2) two or more units of handcuffs and keys, a flashlight, one or (2) two batons or impact guns, LOTS of ammunition in heavy speedloaders or magazines, a tape recorder, O.C. Spray and holster, a Taser and, of direction, the responsibility weapon. Of direction, add to this the nearly obligatory tender body armor we all put on (which ALL pinches us among the bottom of the vest and our obligation belt) and we are carrying tons of uncomfortable, unwell-fitting junk.
No wonder contemporary officers all have backaches at the cease of the day!
Ask the place of business insurance corporations, physical therapists, medical doctors and chiropractors who deal day by day with law enforcement officials and their backaches, they’ll corroborate what I’m pronouncing: duty belts are breaking our backs!
Due to the immoderate weight requirements of belt-carried safety gear demanded today, it’s miles surely necessary for obligation belts to be nicely outfitted, nicely supported and manufactured from strong, stiff-edged material as a way to help the load of the system with out “rolling” or “sagging.”
Furthermore, the well becoming duty belt can’t be overly stiff or restrictive, as this reasons backaches or binds the officials needlessly. An ill-becoming duty belt will in some unspecified time in the future become a health and safety threat, inflicting pinching, fatigue, again pain, hip/again misalignment and bruising.
All law enforcement officials are built in a different way, with extraordinary frame kinds. Additionally, woman cops are constructed in another way than male officials and require a properly fitted obligation belt. Therefore, duty belts have to be made to match all frame sorts, frames and sizes.
But, even supposing we get a nicely-equipped obligation belt, crafted from the state-of-the-art materials, it truly is nonetheless no longer sufficient.
I think we have to revisit the “Sam Browne” belts of yesteryear. Remember the ones shoulder straps that helped keep up the burden of the responsibility belt? Before they became just ornamental junk on dress uniforms, they truly had a reason.
Hunters and infantrymen inside the discipline realize that simplest so much weight may be carried around the waist earlier than fatigue, soreness and hip troubles set in. Therefore, all nice looking and navy waist packs (referred to as fanny packs) have shoulder straps to help distribute the weight calmly.
Think approximately it – structurally, our shoulders are designed to carry and assist weight. Instead of looking to keep a duty belt from slipping down around our waists by means of cinching it tighter and tighter, why do not we have shoulder straps going as much as our shoulders to assist that weight?
Hunters and military troops realize that “fanny packs” can simplest support so much weight earlier than they become more of a difficulty than an asset. Yet law enforcement suppliers (and groups) keep to perpetuate the trouble by means of making the identical vintage element. The current version of the uniform obligation belt differs from the vintage leather belts by and large within the materials used for production. This lets in for thinner belts, however who cares?
That’s now not the essential problem, regardless of what difficult Kevlar backed material you broaden, we’re nonetheless trying to aid 15 pounds of stuff round our waists via basically using friction!