It could be an active shooter situation, or it could be a more routine encounter. There’s no good time to be caught without the proper safety or tactical gear.

Needs vary by agency and job function, but the core ideas—stay safe, empower officers—are the same. From the clothes on officers’ backs to the devices in their hands, a range of cutting-edge safety and tactical gear now offers ingenious and unparalleled protection for those who protect and serve.

Innovators in this space are enhancing public safety by enhancing the safety of officers, all while helping police officers operate more effectively. Across a variety of product categories, manufacturers and product developers are always looking for the next great tool to give police a new tactical edge or a leg up in safety.

Emergency Response

Having safety and tactical gear you can trust is particularly important given the increasingly fraught world in which law enforcement now operates.

“When we think of the modern environment, a lot of people might think of protections related to the coronavirus pandemic, but the truth is that there are all sorts of threats out there,” said Tony Baumgartner, president of DQE, an Indianapolis, Indiana, manufacturer of emergency preparedness and response products. “We have active shooter incidents occurring frequently in this country [the United States], there are natural disasters occurring, and you have the ongoing opioid crisis, just to name a few. All of those require their own special gear to keep officers safe.”

DQE offers a range of safety gear designed specifically for frontline environments like law enforcement. This includes decontamination supplies and personal protective equipment. According to Baumgartner, one growing area of focus is emergency incident rehabilitation products, including items like portable sanitization systems and cooling fans for overheated first responders.

“We’re seeing a growing trend of people wanting to prepare for unforeseen events,” Baumgartner said.

With the right piece of tactical gear, preparedness is a piece of cake. In the case of fires, law enforcement officers are often first to arrive and respond—despite not having a full complement of protective gear. The easy-to-use, one-size-fits-all iEvac smoke and fire hood from Boca Raton, Florida-based Elmridge Protection will help police stay safe until the smoke clears.

“The iEvac is the only American-certified smoke and fire escape hood,” said Ira Gurvitch, president of Elmridge Protection. “The iEvac has twin filters for easier breathing, and the hood is clear for an unobstructed field of vision.”

Each iEvac is heat-resistant up to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit and can be stored long term in waterproof, puncture-resistant packaging.

A New Generation of Tactical Cameras

In many cases, safety measures also provide tactical value. Two deceptively simple camera solutions offer this dual benefit by keeping officers out of harm’s way—and without a large financial outlay often associated with intricate robotic camera systems.

At a price point of around $5,000, the throwable camera from Buffalo, New York-based Bounce Imaging is a cost-effective—and just plain effective—tool for helping to clear rooms and riskier spaces.

“It gets intel in places where officers don’t want to stick their heads,” said Sean Burns, Bounce Imaging’s law enforcement sales manager. “Police officers are faced with difficult decisions every day. As they say, tech before bodies. This can be thrown into tight spaces to help officers gather as much intel as they can before entering an area. This helps keep officers safer, civilians safer, and keeps everyone coming home to their families at the end of the day.”

Transcend Robotics is a long-time innovator in the law enforcement robotics space. The company’s signature product, the Vantage Patrol Robot, can climb stairs and negotiate obstacles more easily and intuitively than similar models.

Now, the Mini Vantage brings the same functionality to a smaller package. For about $5,000, the Mini Vantage can give officers a tactical leg up on a day-to-day basis.

“We wanted to create safety through distance with our
remote-operated robot,” said Phillip Walker, CEO of Transcend Robotics, based in San Diego, California. “So many of the situations you respond to as an officer are behind a house or a fence or a door. Now you can take our robot camera and toss it around a corner or toss it through a door. This reduces liability and, first and foremost, it saves lives.”

Tired of tedious training sessions? The Mini Vantage is ready to use in minutes.

“Our system truly requires zero training beyond knowing how to connect the batteries, how to charge the batteries, and how to connect any booster signal systems,” Walker said. “With the Mini Vantage, all you do is pull a pin and toss it.”

Safer, More Effective Communication

As important as cameras are to law enforcement work, tactics are more than a visual medium. The Superhailer is an ideal tool for safe audio communication over long distances. This acoustic communications device is fully portable and allows users to cut through ambient noise with targeted audio messages and disruptive but safe tones audible at distances up to 800 feet.

“Superhailer allows officers to begin an engagement at a safe distance,” said Matt Henry, director of Cerberus Black, the British company that developed Superhailer. “An officer can take command of a situation at range. Be it in dealing with a demonstration, a traffic stop, or a mental health crisis, Superhailer enables police to effectively de-escalate and calm a situation from a safe distance. This enhances officer safety as well as demonstrating to the wider community that you are trying to avoid using force if at all possible.”

These days, perhaps the most important piece of tactical gear, particularly in a communications context, is the smartphone. That’s where DragonForce comes in.

The DragonForce app is really a suite of apps in one platform, all designed to help public safety professionals work together more efficiently and effectively. Features include secure messaging, video streaming, GPS-based personnel tracking, and tactical whiteboarding.

“You know where everybody is, you know their status, and everyone is freely exchanging information,” said James Sim, president and CEO of Drakontas, the Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, company that developed DragonForce. “This helps your personnel carry out faster decision-making in their day-to-day activities. It’s just better and more efficient task performance. There’s a higher degree of accountability. If someone’s not in the right position or they’re not filling out the forms the right way, you can detect that and correct it immediately.”

One of the app’s core strengths is providing broad functionality with a simple-to-use interface.

“Once you’re in the app, you simply tune in to the group you want, just as you would tune in to a radio station,” he said.

The Best in All-Weather Apparel

At the end of the day, law enforcement is and always will be a person-to-person endeavor. That’s why officer safety will always begin with the clothing and gear police officers wear on the job each day.

Mountain Uniforms, headquartered in Crystal Bay, Nevada, custom-manufactures jackets, pants, bibs, coverall jumpsuits, and other performance apparel for law enforcement customers across the continent. Designed with the elements in mind, Mountain Uniforms products are built to stand up to even the most adverse weather conditions.

“We provide custom gear to the department or to a team within the department, according to their needs, which includes the weather,” said Kim Stearns, Mountain Uniforms’ managing director. “There might be a SWAT team, for example, that may need jackets with extra pockets on the inside—whereas another team may want removable patches. But for everybody, it’s important that they stay safe and dry, and be able to move and function in their job.”

In an uncertain world, a good safety net can be everything. Officer safety holds different meanings in different places, departments, and functions. No matter an agency’s unique situation or needs, there are tactical and safety gear solutions out there perfectly tailored to the job.