Patent Application
20240197018
This disclosure relates to protective headwear. In particular, but without limitation, the disclosure relates to a safety cap for use by plainclothes law enforcement officers or security personnel.
Safety headgear is known in the art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,949 describes a protective reflective helmet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,028 describes light reflective protective headwear.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,792 describes an electroluminescent and light reflective helmet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,483 describes a noctilucent reflective helmet.
WO 2012/006653 describes an improved reflective and illuminated safety helmet and safety systems.
The act of identifying oneself as a law enforcement or security officer or guard when off-duty may be difficult during crisis and critical situations. Plain clothes officers may have to verbally identify themselves when they need to take action as a law enforcement officer or security staff, which may not be heard by others, especially when responding to critical incidence such as active shooter or crisis response. Brandishing a badge or identifier on clothes may not be seen in a dark environment. Without a clear visual way to identify the law enforcement or security staff, a civilian might think that person is taking part in a crime being witnessed or at least not identified as someone who can address the criminal situation. The civilian/uniformed law enforcement personnel might take adverse action against the off-duty officer, which may result in the officer wrongfully injured or killed.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
A safety cap for quick identification to identify a law enforcement officer in plainclothes includes a substantially circular fabric cap having a perimeter and a fabric portion ending in a top portion configured to rest on a head of the law enforcement officer, where the substantially circular fabric cap comprises one or more law enforcement identifier labels attached to the substantially circular fabric cap; a grey, silver reflective strip that runs along the perimeter; one or more gray reflective strips positioned on the substantially circular fabric cap and extending downward from either side of a top law enforcement identifier positioned substantially on the top portion to a length approximately abutting the silver reflective strip that runs substantially along the perimeter.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the disclosure will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the disclosure, and be protected by the following claims
The disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in the figures, like referenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views.
The disclosed safety cap identifies law enforcement, undercover agents and off duty officers who are in plain clothes and may need to come out of role, to take lawful action and not be mistakenly identified as an unlawful element who is committing the crime.
Various aspects of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts and assemblies throughout the several views. Reference to various aspects does not limit the scope of the disclosure, which is limited only by the scope of the claims attached hereto. Additionally, any examples set forth in this specification are not intended to be limiting and merely set forth some of the many possible aspects for the claimed disclosure.
In describing aspects of the present disclosure, the following terminology will be used. The singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a needle” includes reference to one or more of such needles and “etching” includes one or more of such steps. As used herein, a plurality of items, structural elements, compositional elements, and/or materials may be presented in a common list for convenience. However, these lists should be construed as though each member of the list is individually identified as a separate and unique member. Thus, no individual member of such list should be construed as a de facto equivalent of any other member of the same list solely based on their presentation in a common group without indications to the contrary. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
It further will be understood that the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” and “including” specify the presence of stated features, steps or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps or components. It also should be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions and acts noted may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two figures shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality and acts involved.
As used herein, the term “about” means that dimensions, sizes, formulations, parameters, shapes, and other quantities and characteristics are not and need not be exact but may be approximated and/or larger or smaller, as desired, reflecting tolerances, conversion factors, rounding off, measurement error and the like, and other factors known to those of skill. Further, unless otherwise stated, the term “about” shall expressly include “exactly.”
The safety cap 100 may include strips 102 disposed about the safety cap 100 and extending from a top 103 of the safety cap 100 towards the perimeter 101. The strips 102 may be grey reflective strips of length of about 3″. In an aspect of the disclosure, the safety cap 100 may include one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104. The one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 may include labels identifying the type of law enforcement officer using the safety cap 100. In an aspect, the one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 may include a label of “POLICE”. In an aspect, the one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 may include a label of “FBI” or “DEA” or “NATIONAL GUARD” or other applicable law enforcement designation. It is understood by one of skill in the art that the one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 are not limited to the listed aspects but may vary depending on the agency or jurisdiction where the safety cap 100 may be used. In an aspect, the one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 are arranged in a rectangular shape measuring about 5″ a side. In an aspect, the one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 may be silver reflective patches. In an aspect, each of the one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 may include black stitch reflective embroidery letters designating the law enforcement officer's agency, such as “POLICE”. In an aspect, one of the one or more law enforcement identifier labels 104 may be a “POLICE” (or “FBI” or “DEA” or “NATIONAL GUARD” or other applicable law enforcement designation) patch on top of the safety cap 100. The safety cap 100 may include 3″ of gray reflective strips 102 extending downward from either side of the “POLICE” (or “FBI” or “DEA” or “NATIONAL GUARD” or other applicable law enforcement designation) patch on the top 103, extending horizontally 1½″ from the perimeter 101 of the safety cap 100, right above and substantially abutting the silver reflective strip running substantially along the perimeter 101.
In an aspect, the safety cap 100 may be colored with a bright, visible coloring, such as a neon color, to more prominently display the safety cap 100 in low light conditions. Other colors may be used, such as orange, red, blue and black, or other colors and in particular, but without limitation, colors signifying different law enforcement agencies. In an aspect, the safety cap 100 may include reflective materials, luminescent materials, night-vision reflective materials or other materials that provide a reflective surface for the safety cap 100 to be seen in any low light environment.
In an aspect, the safety cap 100 may be made of a flexible material without extra armoring or protection.
As depicted in
The safety cap 100 may include 3″ of gray reflective strips 203 extending radially downward from either side of the top law enforcement identifier patch 202, extending to about 1½″ from the perimeter 201 of the safety cap 200, right above a silver reflective strip (not shown here) along substantially the entire perimeter 201.
As in the safety cap 100 in
With the disclosure as described in
While various aspects of the disclosure have been described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many more aspects and implementations are possible within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, the disclosure is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.
