Every cop I know carries at least one knife on them. When asked in public, most of them will say they are tools for opening things or, my favorite, freeing motor vehicle accident victims by cutting off the seatbelt. However, ask the same cops in the locker room and they will all state that they carry a knife as a deadly force option in a lethal struggle.
Well, I think it is time for cops, and administrators, to publicly acknowledge that knives are self defense tools in deadly force situations. More importantly, it is time for departments to incorporate knives into their training so the officers have the needed skills to use the knife if they ever have to.
Don’t think cops use knives to save their lives in a struggle? A Sacramento County (CA) deputy sheriff did just that this past week, when a motorist tried to take his duty gun on a traffic stop. I don’t know if this deputy had any knife training, or if he just instinctively reacted, but he did use the knife to stop the attacker from taking his firearm. I carry a Ka-Bar TDI knife behind my duty belt for just this situation.
I’m not a knife expert. But I do know there are some quality trainers out there that can help you get the training you need, or help your department structure a program that would incorporate knives into use-of-force training.
Make sure you check out Randall’s series of articles on Police Knives:
- Police Knives: Steel at the Ready Part I
- Police Knives: Steel at the Ready Part II
- Police Knives: Steel at the Ready Part III
Richard is a police officer with a medium sized, central Florida department, and previously worked for a Metro-Atlanta agency. He has served as a field training officer, court officer, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, watch commander, commander of a field training and evaluation program, and general pain in the butt to management-types looking to cut training hours.
Stay safe!
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What are your thoughts on civilians carrying something like this?
Robert,
As long as your local laws don’t conflict, I think that everyone should be carrying a knife. I don’t think it was that long ago that everyone did carry a knife, though not a “tactical” one.
If you are asking specifically about the Ka-Bar knife, I’ve carried the TDI knife off-duty and it has carried comfortably, and doesn’t seem to print under an untucked shirt.
I didn’t carry the TDI a lot off duty, because you have to thread your belt through the sheath, and it was a bit of a pain. However, I see that Ka-Bar now has a clip you can attach to the sheath, so it may be that is no longer a concern. I haven’t tried the clip, but it should work well. I think they would have to try pretty hard to screw it up.
Hope this helps.
–Richard
I’ve never had to “use” a knife on anybody, but I always carry one where it is legal. I have pulled my knife both in my defense and in defense of others. I don’t live in an area where civilians can carry a gun in public, but even if I could carry a gun I would also have a knife. There are things you can do with a knife that you can’t with a gun, especially at grappling range.
Thank you for writing the article and I agree. I teach such a class that covers using a knife as a second deadly force option such as in the Sacramento case. It is hard to get admin to accept the necessity of knife training (both from a response to a spontaneous attack, but also the offensive aspect). I finally got the course POST approved as “advanced curriculum, but there seems to be a PC image problem associated with “the deadly knife”. Thanks again.
Although It looks like I’m running a little behind in the discussion, I thought I’d add my “two cents worth”…
I whole heartedly agree that cops, as well as private security professionals like myself, should carry at least on good knife on them while on duty.
I’m a longtime loss prevention officer and as such am not allowed to carry a firearm while “on duty”, even though I encounter many of the same people that LEOs encounter and usually under similar circumstances (making arrests for crimes committed).
Because corporate policy doesn’t allow for firearms carry, I have had to get “creative” in the tools I carry for self defense. Next to OC, my two primary weapons of choice have been a good knife (Spyderco “Military”) carried at the “mid-line” in a “appendix” carry position and a “defensive stylus” (I own a number of brands and mix them up) carried at the “high-line” in the placket of my shirt (or thereabouts depending on the style of shirt).
Although I know that there can be a deficit of time, money and energy for cops, especially those with families, I am amazed that more cops don’t invest the time in “extra-curricular” training such as the afore-mentioned “quality trainers” or certified “martial blade-craft” instructors.
Again, just my “two cents worth”.