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This invention relates to law enforcement restraint devices, specifically to such restraint devices which are applied easily and safely.
Law enforcement restraint devices are evolving with advances in technology and social awareness of the potential for abusive law enforcement practices. Existing restraint devices include striking batons, hand cuffs, disposable cuffs and zip ties, taser and stun guns, head and neck restraints, pepper spray, police dogs, and most recently, bola wraps, all of which present difficulties and dangers in applying to resistant detainees. These devices supplement existing bodily restraint practices that are also inherently dangerous, such as choke, basket, supine, and prone holds to subdue violent, mentally ill, and non-compliant detainees.
As revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,622 B2 to MacAleese et al. (2003), others have invented a law enforcement restraint device where there is a handle and shaft in the form of a baton, and where internal cuffs are extracted to a deployable position at the ends of the baton, but the cuffs are flexible plastic loops that require the manual manipulation of the detainee extremities of hands or feet by the user into the loops prior to retraction and tightening of the loops. The device requires intimate and dangerous engagement of the detainee by the user, as evident in the description of preferred embodiment, which include descriptions of use such as, “The officer swings the invention at the suspect's right knee to knock him off balance,” and “ . . . the officer uses leverage to spin the suspect around,” and “ . . . the officer continues to turn the suspect away from him and uses the invention to help twist the suspect's left arm behind him,” and “ . . . the officer now places the invention in the small of the suspect's back to further immobilize him,” with several more steps involved in forcing the extremities of the suspect through the loops prior to retraction and tightening of the loops. Hand cuffs with open hinged rigid elements and locking components have been in use for more than 100 years, and avoid the problem of awkwardly forcing extremities through enlarged flexible loops of retractable restraint devices, but these restraint devices along with disposable cuffs and zip ties also face the problem of application in close proximity to potentially violent and resistant detainees. Taser and stun guns, as anticipated by Coakley et al. 1997, avoid the problem of close encounters with the detainee, but the application of these devices can result in serious injury to the detainee, as is the case with the use of striking batons, pepper spray, police dogs, head and neck restraints, and any of the available direct bodily restraint methods requiring physical engagement by the law enforcement officer. The bola wrap, or other projectile netting devices, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,795 to Gerwig (1998), anticipates a launching device that projects a net or bola to apprehend a detainee, but the invention faces the difficulty of accurately deploying the device against an individual at a distance, it may not reliably bind the limbs of the detainee to prevent fleeing, and further has the disadvantage of being imprecisely applied in a situation where the detainee may be in close proximity to innocent individuals or bystanders.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are to provide a law enforcement restraint device which consists of a hand-held implement containing a handle and shaft long enough to safely deploy collapsed detachable locking cuffs to a violent, mentally ill, or non-compliant detainee, with easily deployable and detachable locking cuffs bound by a flexible detachable cable with locking clamp allowing for tightening, thereby eliminating the need for dangerous bodily restraining devices or take-down techniques. Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
In accordance with the present invention, a law enforcement restraint device comprises a handle and hollow shaft containing easily deployable and detachable locking cuffs bound by a detachable flexible cable with locking clamp for tightening.
A preferred embodiment of the law enforcement restraint device is depicted in
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Number | Date | Country | |
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63103081 | Jul 2020 | US |