ok, so maybe i'm naive or totally uninformed, but in all sincerity here goes:

why have a handcuff key in your survival bag?

are we escaping from law enforcement? bad guys? do bad guys carry handcuffs?

do we have the key secreted on us somewhere? where? if the key were to be found by law enforcement would that not raise suspicion as to our intent?

i'm really lost and confused on this one. i need help understanding the pros and cons. no pun intended.

I'm lost and confused, too. I don't know anyone other than a police officer who carries one under any circumstances, let alone in a survival bag. Did I miss something on another thread?

I have kept mine along with my p38 on the same line and those are going to stay together because they have always been together.

Oh yes, I am a retired Coastie Boarding Officer & that's why I had a handcuff key in the 1st place.

It's a sentimental thing, it doesn't have to make sense!

I don't carry one and never will. That said, Ted Bundy used to carry handcuffs. It wouldn't surprise me if other lowlifes do as well.

A lot of cops carry a spare concealed at the back of the waist, to avoid a very embarrassing situation. Paramedics carry them, for the patients they may get from the cops. Crooks may carry them, for obvious reasons I suppose, and crooks do occasionally use cuffs. Then there are, ahem, recreational users of handcuffs. There is nothing illegal about having or carrying either cuffs or keys in most jurisdictions, but, yeah, it might buy you a lot closer scrutiny from the local gendarmes. But for the life of me, I can't think why I'd need one in my BOB.

Jeff

A cuff key in your bag will probabaly not do you any good, lets face it if some one puts cuffs on you good or bad they are not gonna let you near a bag that has survival goodies in it. If you do carry one (some states and cities look down on this) I suggest hidden some where on yourself that you can reach from the front or back. As far as why carry one, same as why you carry a survival kit to the office with you JUST IN CASE, OR WHAT IF.

i saw this in a recent post. scratching my head, i did a search on 'handcuff'. there are references by several (more than five) members who mention routinely carrying one either on their keyring or person or survival bag.

i was looking for the reason(s) why.

Not to highjack the thread, but I have a question for you, Chris or any other Coastie out there.

My son-in-law is a Coastie and was recently transferred from Station Annapolis, MD to Station Wrightsville Beach, NC. He was a Boarding Office with over 200 boardings and yet when he transferred to the new station, he had to re-qualify all over again. Is this standard practice?

Just curious-
Pete

Yes it is in many cases. It really depends on the C.O. IRT some qualifications but most qualifications have to be redone at every change of station.

My OOD quals were cancelled as soon as I left one ship and I had to requal on the new ship. Now my "Rules of the Road" ticket was good for 5 years along with my Rapid Radar ticket,, but I wasn't qualified to drive the new ship until the C.O. of that vessel said I was qualified to drive his "toy".

In 10 years of EMS work, I've NEVER seen a medic, EMT firefighter, first responder, nurse, or physician carry a set of handcuffs. If the patient is that violent, the cops are already there (or on their way). The only restraints on most ambulances are soft restraints: cloth and foam things. Occasionally "hard" restraints, leather, are used, but they don't use cuff keys.

I've got a cuff key on my keychain, which I found by chance. I was coming out of a restaraunt when I came across it in the parking lot one evening. I just keep it on there because it's small and it doesn't cause a problem. And other users are right - criminals can use handcuffs just as easily as law enforcement can. So one can say I'm just being safe rather than sorry.

In 30 years of EMS work, there are many occasions where I've had to assess or treat patients initially in handcuffs. On those occasions a handcuff "KEY" of your own can come in handy. Please recall that the discussion and my comment about paramedics was merely about handcuff keys, not handcuffs. Handcuff use in a medical setting would be, of course, a deviation from the accepted standard of care. Nonetheless, one sometimes encounters handcuffed patients. This may not be your experience, but it does happen.

Jeff

So Jeff, are you saying that after receiving a handcuffed "patient" from a cop you would then use your own handcuff key to uncuff the subject and render treatment? If so, where was the cop and why didn't he uncuff, or why would you uncuff a violent (I assume), subject without the LEO present?

No attitude intended in the question...just curious

Well, EMS personnel do have, ahem... sedatives... that could make it perfectly safe to uncuff a violent patient.

Or, they could use the "universal sedative"...

You know cops... never around when you need them.(just kidding) Sometimes the cops are still busy sorting out an ongoing situation, and aren't available to remove the cuffs when they are no longer needed. Sometimes the patient was cuffed merely due to police protocol and are no danger to me. Sometimes I've already placed to patient in medical-type restraint, so the cuffs are no longer needed.

Jeff

FYI from a field medic.....I've carried both. It was very common to carry cuffs where I worked in NYC. I know many medics/emts who did. No they are NOT "approved"...but neither were some of the other things that "we" carried. No we didn't usually go in on violent patients when we were alone.....but then a lot of patients that 'weren't violent' turned that way very quickly...and when the cops weren't there....then we needed something to secure them FAST! Usually they'd get cuffed in some way:either hands together or at least one of them to the stretcher so that we only had one hand to 'worry about'. After we got them 'secured in the (soft restraints/Bellvue sandwhich) equipment...then the cuffs would come off. They were a stop gap to allow us to time to properly restrain them.

If reference to 'uncuffing' a patient that was under arrest....I've had quite a few 'prisoners' who were cuffed (behind the back) that after a short while became very medically unstable. Some of them needed Endotrachael Intubation (tube into the trachea (lungs) to breathe for them). It is very difficult to place someone flat on their back when their hands are cuffed behind them. In that case they'd be quickly uncuffed and cuffed to the stretcher...despite the fact that they may no longer have been breathing....they were still cuffed to the stretcher.

Other times I've had cops "follow" us to the hospital with the someone in custody in my bus. Sometimes they would 'take their time' getting there (Oh I got stuck at a light).....in that case we were able to temporarily remove a cuff to move the patient from our stretcher....the cop had cuff him to it. This happened several times despite our requesting that they NOT do so. Once we got to the hospital and had enough people to safely 'cover the patient' we could open them.

Some 'perps', once they settled down, would sometimes realize that "we" (EMS) were not the ones they were ticked off at. Sometimes they would actually apologize to us and become an almost completely different person....no we still didn't trust them...but we did build a rapport with them and they would relax with us and not be so violent. Sometimes we would actually get some better results from them since we weren't trying to 'fight' them.

It was/is always a 'judgement' call. I am fortunate to have enough experience to make that call...I had excellent people teach me....I wouldn't even try to explain how to make that judgement in a post....you need LOTS of hands on time in an area and with people who know what and how to really teach you.

Most importantly......OUR safety is ALWAYS FIRST !!!!!We go home alive tonight....Thus endeth the lesson.

Because some people on this site think they are James Bond.
simon

He is 007, I'm 009

Thanks for the explanation.

He been at the new station for over 2 months and just this past week re-qualified for his Boarding Officer status, so he is happy Coastie once more.

Pete

Can I have 99 for a partner???

I carry one on my key ring only because it has been there for about 36 years now. It is getting work kind of thin too.

Re EMS personnel and handcuffs, please keep in mind that the "patient" is in cuffs for a reason. Many had to be fought to get them cuffed, often by more than one officer. Removing cuffs without A LOT of good guys around can have things go bad in a hurry. Personally, I never left a cuffed suspect alone with any medical personnel. I caught him, and I keep him 'til he is in a cell. The only exception might be for an x-ray, then we would try to switch to hospital hard restraints, but I would be there when the cuffs were removed...

I carry one on my keys. A friend of my father, a former undercover narcotics officer, gave it to me when I was a kid and I've carried it ever since. He also showed me how to get out of cuffs without a key, but I keep those tricks to myself.