Hi! I've been a frequent veiwer on this forum for the past few years, I finally decided to participate and created a user profile. This is a super board and the moderators are very knowledgable (btw - nice knife, Doug, I recieved one for Christmas '04).

Anyways, my question is, if you were a uniformed LEO, already overequipped with mandatory 'stuff', what type of PSK would you carry? Needs to take up no more space than a pack of smokes, urban use, potential situation would be a loss of power, mega traffic jam, possible hostilities (picture Katrina or similar). Equipment already on the duty belt: Good folding knife, pistol, ammo, other LE gear (handcuffs, asp, OC etc), Stinger flashlight (good for an hour with a full charge).

To expand that concept a bit more, we alwas carry a small backpack in the car with a protective mask, ammo, flex cuffs, 1 liter of water, lunch and other normal things that could be grabbed in an emergency. There is about 1 cubic ft of space available in the bag for more goodies, any suggestions? WMD gear is a seperate item and agency provided-also in the car (yes, I hope we're near the cars when things happen). I'll share the current contents that we put together as time permits. Thanks!

When I was so gainfully employed, I carried a Q-tip trial sized plastic box filled with essentials. While that box has gone by the wayside, it was stocked somewhat similarly to this mini-Witz container -



By adding a whistle and Photon light to your keyring and adding a Suunto Clipper compass to your watchband, you break things up a bit and gain space for other gear in your kit.

The kit above contains (+/- a few things) -

Bison whistle
Victorinox Alox Classic
Mini Magnesium FireStarter and hacksaw blade striker
Sparklight TinderQuik
Uncle Bill's SliverGripper Tweezers
Two large eye and two regular sewing needles
Suunto compass
Photon Covert in red (for long lasting light)
Bobber light
12yds dental floss
Victorinox pen refill covered by heatshrink tubing
Cut down cuff key w/ heatshrink tubing handle
Bandaids (2)
Butterfly strips (2)
Alcohol prep
Sting-eze Wipe
Wet wipe disinfectant
Pepcid tabs
Micropur tabs
Electrical tape
Ranger band
Traser Glowring

The box slides easily into a uniform shirt or pants pocket and is barely noticeable...

M

Welcome aboard! We have vehicle chargers for the flashlights, so one light is in the charger, one is on my person. Extra 123 batteries for the tactical light, nitrile gloves and antimicrobial wipes in a zip-lock bag in a pocket, extra radio battery in the case in the car, first aid kit for ME in the car (tailored for my allergies, cuts, and scratches that go with the job, but now also containing self-injectors for nerve agents <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />), cheat card in pocket with access codes and locations of shelters and prepared resupply areas (other than the station), wide-area map book in the car, personal cell phone (on different carrier than the department issue phone).

That is what comes to mind. If I remember, I will take a look at my duty case next week and see what else is hiding in the corners.

Excellent advice, guys! Thanks!!!

Welcome aboard,
I carry the usual things like a notebook & pen. Department requires a whistle on lanyard with cuff key in left shirt pocket. Metal mirror in right shirt pocket(useful for looking around/under/over when I don't want to expose my knoggen). Bandanna in trouser pocket. Compass on watch band. Laytex gloves inside zippered shirt next to vest. H.D. aluminum foil, dental floss, wire, bandaids and needle in wallet(foil, wire and needle made it through airport checkpoint last year) and extra cash. P-38 on key ring. I keep my keys in my pocket and use seperate ignition key for vehicle. This keeps me from locking myself out of the car when I have to leave it running (bad thing to have to call headquarters for your own lock out). Case of bottled water and a couple of MRE's in vehicle along with first-aid kit, flares, blankets and extra large trash bags to sit the nasty drunks on.
Hope this helps. Glad you posted this as the other replies have got me thinking.

Everything listed so far in the thread is very good, and I think that communications should be mentioned. Communications is truly essential these days for law enforcement officers, and there isn't enough of redundancy for my liking, so here are some things:

1) As an emergency services worker, you should be more familiar with communications systems than the average person. You don't really need to know theory, just how things are connected, and perhaps how things might fail.

2) Check to make sure that your cell phone providers are not sharing towers/equipment. It is possible that both are leasing tower space from a third party, or from one another. If you are in law enforcement, you should be able to have your Homeland Security Coordinator/liason find out this for you. You don't need to know specifics, just that they're seperate.

3) I would also consider either:
A) Getting an amateur radio license, and having a radio in your cruiser, or on your person. They're cheap, and most come with battery packs for AA/AAA batteries. Car units aren't too bad in price either. If you get a General license, you can get HF, and can go farther. This all depends on who you want to communicate with.

B) Getting an older VHF/UHF (dual-bands if possible). Program it with frequencies that would be monitored by someone (i.e. MED channels, Nationwide Law Enforcement, State Police Shared/Common, State Fire Shared/Common, etc.). Could be useful where an 800Mhz TRS system is. Make sure that your 800Mhz radios have the Nationwide 800Mhz TAC channels in them (there are 5 plus 1 calling channel). For the VHF/UHF frequencies, amateur radio operators may be able to (no guarantee) transmit on the frequencies listed above, under FCC Part 97 (Amateur Radio), 97.403 - "No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available." If you are trying to reach someone, and you don't get anyone, and its an emergency, try calling specifically for an amateur station. Amateurs like to follow the law, and its nice to have clear cut words that let us do things. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'm really not sure of the consequences, but I'd be comfortable responding to you if no one else had.

C) Both. The more you get, the more logistics required for power (different battery requirements, etc). If you don't want to trouble yourself, contact a local amateur radio club, and they'll find someone to consult with you to get something that you can manage.

In the long run, smoke signals work just fine. At least the fire department will show up! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I agree! Being a ham since 14, I usually "forget" that ham radio is also for emergency use. It is just an automatic response. We are lucky where I work. We have public safety repeaters with multiple voting receivers. If the system should fail, the repeater goes into "stand-alone repeat mode". We also have a simplex base at the station. All of the portables and mobiles can go to simplex. Public safety radio sites are at different locations than the cell sites. The two cell carriers that we use do not share towers (actually buildings) in our area. Our ARES/RACES group is not as active as I would like to see. That is on my list of things to change. Thanks for the additional ideas. Something else to bring up to the boss when I see him this week. He actually enjoys our emergency preparedness chats, provided that I do the work, and he does not. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Probably biased, but I've always seen communications as the core of any emergency response. It doesn't matter if you have 35 trailers of ice and 20 trailers of MRE's. If you don't have communications, you don't know the state of roads, and where to distribute them! BTW, I've only had my ham license for 2 years. Listened to a radio scanner for 15 years before that.

There used to be a time that police officers were still required to carry whistles, even though they had a radio. Probably still not a bad idea in a disaster prone area like San Fran.

Work on your RACES/ARES. You have to find people that are willing to put everything down to help you (think retired people, and couples with no children at home). Nothing more embarassing as saying you have a roster of over 1,000 people, and can't find 40 people to man shelters in teams of 2. Makes the professionals lose all respect for your "hobby".

If your department/city has one (if it's not you), talk to the Homeland Security Coordinator. If they don't have one, perhaps you might have some free time! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />