What do police officers (or military, or whatever your service was) ACTUALLY use, from what you've seen?

blanex1 said:
my father was a policeman he worked for LAPD for 45 years, he always just cared his badge/gun, but he did take away lots of knifes from criminal's back in the day.
Click to expand...
Dang, did you get to see any benefit from that as a kid? 😁 Some sweet Balis or whatever?
 
Wild Willie said:
My father in law is a local cop, he just carries junk despite my best efforts, and they're usually dull as piss... Drives me crazy.
Click to expand...
That's why I just gift high-edge-retentiony knives to folks! For a cop, I'd give 'em something serrated for seatbelts. Yeah, that'd get me, too, haha.

Lots of great answers here, lots of mixed answers, as I expected. Much appreciated from all. No Civilians or Matriarchs? Haha.

jmh33 said:
My son is a Pittsburgh detective. Don’t know if he has a knife on him.
When he was a beat cop. He had a Buck but I can’t remember which one. And I gave it to him!! 🤔😂🤔
John 🇺🇸
Click to expand...
You should remedy that 😁 Tell 'em to get a reduced price Spyderco, if I was eligible, I'd be all over it. But then again, you may still get "$75 for a knife?!"
Ron Sabbagh said:
I'll second Benchmade and Spyderco ....in New York in the 80's and 90's
Click to expand...
Seems like you worked with one of the most knife-smart teams here!
I wonder if cops in the 80s and 90s carried better knives, overall, than they do today. I am getting that impression.
 
When I was a cop, before heading to the private sector, the popular choices were Benchmade of different flavors, Spyderco Delica or Endura, CRKT M16, or whatever free junk knife they got from uniform distributors trying to up sale the department. Lots of guys had a leatherman or gerber multi-tool in their car as well. I carried a tanto CRKT M16 on me for abusive stuff and a leatherman in the car. Back in those days I always carried a Spyderco Delica or Stretch off duty. If I were doing it all over again I would probably carry just an Izula.
 
Hashishiin said:
I wonder if cops in the 80s and 90s carried better knives, overall, than they do today. I am getting that impression.
Click to expand...

In general, I think that might be true. Remember, the '90's were the hayday for "tactical". You just weren't cool if you didn't have a Strider or Emerson. All the new recruits full of piss-and-vinegar wanted or had one. If nothing else, guys like Mick and Ernie moved the knife industry forward in ways that were not seen before. Like them or not, their influence was undeniable.
 
It isn't nearly as glamorous as when they have a fantasy thread here that asks, "if you were in the $hi+, what would you carry" and all the killer expensive, semi-custom, battle ready warrior style blades come out. Working a lot with the Wounded Warriors over the last 15 years and having a few friends in law enforcement now, the picture is much more realistic.

Me: "Why do you carry that S&W knife? Since your life might depend on it, wouldn't you want something better quality in your belt?"

Them: "This is fine. If I am relying on my folding pocket knife to save my life I am in way over my head. I carry a taser, spray and a gun for various levels of defense. I need a seat belt cutter, a light wire cutter, and something I won't cry about if I leave it behind, it gets confiscated for evidence, or I lend it to someone to use when clearing an accident and they don't remember to give it back." (They meant EMTs or a patrolman.) One even told me he had his knife literally covered with sticky blood, so he left it behind on purpose.

My Army buddies are different. They told me their commanders told them what was acceptable and what wasn't, and in some areas and some cases "light" fingers were a problem so cost had to be a consideration. They all loved the version of the Gerber Strongarm (?) they were issued and used them to dig, pry, wedge, chop, hammer and break things. They all swore they were too dull to use as a knife. They LOVED their mulitools. Some still carry them. A few carried something like the S&W lawman type knives as they recognized the name and it was available at the BX.

I remember sitting with my Vietnam age buddies that were "in country" and was really surprised at what they carried. They loved the stuff the government issued as if they broke it or lost it combat, they could just get another. All sounds pretty practical to me.
 
Blues said:
Doesn't work like that. At least not if you're honest and by the book.

I've never seen civil forfeiture of knives...but plenty of other stuff related to narco-trafficking.
Click to expand...
I've seen it. Multiple times as a teenager especially. I had a cop take a brand new Buck 110 right off my belt and tell me "You don't need that, you'll get in trouble with it". Also out of my car- a butterfly knife, even though they're fully legal here.
 
I carry Spyderco (Bradley 2, Native Salt 2, Endura or Tasman), Cold Steel American lawman or the occasional Emerson + a leatherman. I have seen one Benchmade triage out there, some Gerber paraframes, and a bunch of Leathermans, Swisstools and some Gerber MT’s.

Why do they carry MT’s? No clue. Everyone carries MT’s, but still use the knifeblade on the MT’s as a screwdriver instead of the actual screwdriver. Which in turn forces me to ask them if they are idiots.
 
SimplyMinded said:
I've seen it. Multiple times as a teenager especially. I had a cop take a brand new Buck 110 right off my belt and tell me "You don't need that, you'll get in trouble with it". Also out of my car- a butterfly knife, even though they're fully legal here.
Click to expand...
I'm not saying it didn't or doesn't happen. I'm simply referring to what is condoned by law. I had my own run-ins with the law as a youth before I ever took the oath.
 
Beyond Mustachedome: Two men enter, one man leaves.

iu
iu
 
Ruari said:
A lot of the people in the military, as you rightly assert, are not 'knife people' and it shows.
Many have some form of cheap multi tool, typically Gerber or some cheap alternative.
The few that have a knife of some description will typically have a 'no name' folder of dubious quality, maybe one or two have a Victorinox.
Fewer still will have a Mora or other cheap bushcraft fixed blade.
The majority of these knives are used for cleaning rifles (scraping off the carbon - I know, madness...) opening boxes, cutting banding and prying/poking holes.
There are very few who have any actual interest in quality knives, but those that do carry some good to decent kit. Benchmade, KaBar, TOPS, SOG, Lion Steel, Eickhorn, Cold Steel are all brands I've seen carried by military personnel.
Click to expand...

Actually, my experience has been that (for the most part) both military and LEO "people" are really neither gun nor knife people.

Most people in my academy class (and in my dept) couldn't shoot a handgun to save their life and barely qualified each year to continue to carry a gun on duty and many didn't even bother to qualify to carry off duty. I bought huge amounts of ammo (paid for by our Deputy Sheriff's Assoc) for cheap from other deputies who didn't even care to practice shooting.

The few ex-military people in my academy class were no different and were among the lowest qualifiers (along w/the women) in the class. So, Camp Perry notwithstanding, I do not believe that the military properlly train their recuits in the use of a handgun. Rifles are what they are trained to use in the military and anybody w/2 hands and basic vision should be able to shoot a rifle w/some accuracy. Not so a handgun.

As for knives, I was the only person in my unit who carried one and it was NOT a single bladed folder. It was a Gerber mutli-tool because that was what would be most useful. My duty belt was heavy enough w/o carrying a lot of unncessary stuff.

Besides, why bother carrying a single bladed folder when you are already opening carrying a GUN on your hip? LOL! ;)
 
Last edited:
In Germany Pohlforce knives were pretty popular among policemen some time ago. According to a friend who is into knives and a cop nearly all of his younger colleagues either had one or wanted one (mostly the Mike Five). A (female) friend of mine who is a cop carries a locking Victorinox Ranger though. Some members of a tactical police team here in Germany carried Extrema Ratios.
In Italy I witnessed a harbour policeman cutting a line with a custom Extrema Ratio BF2T once.
Last but not least I once saw the member of a French anti terror unit in full gear with a Bastinelli RED V2 strapped to his chest in live TV. But that hardly qualifies as EDC.
 
Sort of like when you were watching an episode of COPS, you could tell who the gun guys were. It was sometimes painful watching some of those officers trying to clear a handgun they'd taken off a perp. I'd sit there and yell instructions at my tv. 😄
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top