By Charles Donaldson, Police1 Member
We have reached a point in LED technology where we are creating such white light power, we can not only give our deputies/teams the ability to see, but also create concealment in any environment. With High Yield Illumination (HYI) we now have the ability to create concealment regardless of whether or not it’s dark, low/diminished light, and more importantly, even when we find ourselves in those lit environments.
Our vision relates to our ability to perform and act/react. It’s responsible for balance, coordination, eye/hand coordination, decision-making abilities, depth perception, and even helps aid in anemotional act: confidence.
HYI can create a reaction in your opponents that is so overpowering, it resets their OODA back to Observe. If the intensity of light that is being used is in a strobe fashion they cant even begin to reach the ‘orient’ step of the OODA.
Light as Less Lethal
As a low light tactics instructor, I often hear less light is better. I absolutely agree if you are using a flashlight. But we now have some HYI light systems out here that are — and rightly so — considered as another nonlethal use-of-force tool. I don’t mean using it as a club! I’m talking about the intensity of the light actually affecting an adversary’s ability to hurt you, while at the same time giving us the ability to make positive threat identification.
I sometimes hear, “What about splash back from white walls” when making entry. Of course we teach light discipline — for instance using the softer secondary corona of the light beam — but if we are going to get active in any entry I can say by my own experience that the upside to HYI in darker environments on strobe for dynamic entry is far more abrupt and overwhelming on the recipients than on the operator/s. It has never diminished my capability under stress.
When we enter, our light system will not just give us the light we absolutely must have, but in most average size rooms an action that will impact the entire back wall and those standing there. This allows our team to peripherally ‘pre-clear’ a third of our area of responsibility as we cross the threshold lowering our time to get to the deep corners by three-to-five-tenths of a second. And in strobe mode, it gives us so much overwhelming light we dominate anything in front of us. In this arena the upside percentage absolutely outweighs the down side of a little splash back.
HYI now can give us the ability not just to use illumination for the basics required to see and do our job, but utilize the power of light to mask our intentions by having concealment. It can keep us from being back lit when entering from a lit environment to a darker interior and it can give us concealment when entering into an active shooter scenario. We can even use HYI as a tactical diversion.
Human beings are absolutely reliant on many of our physical senses — hearing, touch, smell, and most importantly, sight. When under stress, we start to experience auditory exclusion; our touch even becomes less sensitive as our gross motor skills become dominant. So as your heart rate increases, it starts to compound your physical problem so you become even more dependent on your sight/vision. In an instant this happens uncontrollably. So if you find yourself in that moment in time where lethal force is emanate then why, at the speed of light would you not use HYI to take their last and most important sense, sight?
We all have made the decision to be the guys/gals that take the step to protect and preserve life. We must have the wherewithal to make the decision to take that step in front of the line of fire. So if in low/diminished light, and in complete darkness we must have our ability to see to clearly identify the level of threat/shoot or non-threat/no-shoot, legally, ethically, and morally we must have enough light to even make this decision.
With all the upsides to HYI like instant/speed of light concealment, why are we still relying on yesterday’s technology and training to use that type of low light that should be used more for walking your dog, not staring down a lethal threat?
