Night shifts. Working outdoors in all kinds of weather. Searching for a suspect in a wooded area or a drug house. Whatever the conditions, police officers need to discern in an instant whether a suspect’s movements are threatening or nonthreatening. Are they reaching in their pocket for a firearm or wallet or cellphone? There’s little room for guessing and making the wrong choice can be fatal for the suspect or the officer.
One study on how use-of-force decisions are made found that as a draw motion was revealed, study participants more often identified the object as a weapon than as a nonweapon.[i] In another widely cited study of 148 officer-involved shootings, 18% were identified as likely mistake-of-fact (MOF) shootings and 75% of those occurred at times of day associated with reduced light. The author attributed these, in part, to misidentification of threat level from impaired contrast sensitivity in low light.[ii]
Another small study subjected 12 police cadets to identify three nonlethal objects and a large-frame handgun in various lighting conditions. The study found cadets had difficulty telling lethal from nonlethal objects in light below 0.50 foot-candles, a level often encountered in routine night work. The author recommended officers increase lighting levels with a weapon-mounted light, train in low-level lighting conditions and document the lighting level with an illuminometer during shooting investigations.[iii]
While there is not a large body of studies linking MOF officer-involved shootings to low-light conditions, one thing is certain: “Positive identification is critical. When you pull that trigger, you can’t take it back,” said James Reeve, law enforcement and international sales manager for INFORCE, a Sellmark company that manufactures and sells weapon lights for law enforcement and military organizations. “To have a reliable, effective light that allows you to positively identify your target is critical. And if you don’t have that and it’s dark, you simply cannot.”
Identification and de-escalation in a use-of-force scenario
A duty light often plays a decisive role in an officer’s ability to lawfully identify a threat and potentially resolve an encounter without deadly force.
In low light, officers need supplemental lighting to identify threats and meet the identification standard required by nearly every use-of-force policy before lawfully using force. Most police agencies will train officers in use-of-force decision making, but few train in low-light conditions.
What is often overlooked is the value of a beam of light not only for identification of a threat, but its use as a de-escalation tool. A bright beam directed at a subject’s eyes can temporarily disorient them, giving the officer time and distance — two factors known to help prevent an encounter from ending in deadly force.
Determining the right light for the mission
Setting aside specialized enhancements like night vision, supplemental lighting — whether headlights, scene lights, a flashlight or a weapon-mounted light — varies by purpose and need.
To understand which is the right supplemental lighting for a mission, it’s important to consider two measurements that help explain a light’s performance: lumens and candela.
Lumens measure total light output. Candela measures how intensely that light is concentrated in one direction. In addition, beam pattern (how light is shaped and distributed) and throw (the effective distance at which the light illuminates a subject) help determine how far the beam reaches and how well it illuminates the object.
A flashlight or weapon light with high lumens provides broad, soft illumination like a floodlight. It illuminates more of the scene but makes finer details like faces, hands, firearms and phones harder to identify at a distance. A lumen-dominant beam is better for close-quarters work like building searches and vehicle stops or other situations where you need to see a whole scene more clearly.
A light with high candela concentrates the light into a narrower beam with a bright hotspot for illumination at a greater range. This is more suited for identifying objects at a long range or concentrating a beam to cut through fog, rain or dust.
A deputy from a rural sheriff’s office searching for a missing person in the woods would benefit from a higher-candela light that will throw several hundred yards, whereas a SWAT team member might benefit more from a higher-lumen, wider beam pattern that throws only the 20 feet of visibility needed to flood a room, Reeve explained.
The headlights or mounted spotlight on your patrol vehicle might suffice in situations where you need light to illuminate a scene like a flooded roadway or an accident scene, but for many law enforcement scenarios, your choice of supplemental lighting matters.
Some veteran officers may be comfortable with a handheld flashlight. A handheld light offers flexibility and keeps your firing hand free until needed, but proper technique takes practice: A poor grip under stress can compromise accuracy. “When you’re trying to hold a light separately from the firearm itself, it goes against everything you’ve learned about having the proper grip on the firearm,” Reeve explained.
A pistol-mounted light points where you are aiming but requires careful judgment about when to draw. A rifle-mounted light provides the greatest stability and typically the highest output, with the same safety considerations at longer distances.
But the most frequent answer to “If I only have one to carry, which is the better light for the mission?” is usually something in between that will accommodate a range of situations.
Fortunately, INFORCE solves for multiple missions with the ARC series modular weapon lights.
Modularity for flexibility, affordability
The INFORCE ARC is a series of modular tactical flashlights designed for adaptability and customization. The LR head in the ARC 650 features a 90,000-candela hotspot for long-range target identification and a throw reaching up to 600 meters, while its 1,400 lumens of spill lighting provides flood lighting for close-quarters visibility.
The ARC 650’s integrated mounting lugs and included M-LOK 45 mount allow for an out-of-the box solution, while its compatibility with the Surefire Scout footprint and thread pattern allows users to upgrade existing lights with high-performance ARC components or any other scout-style aftermarket heads, bodies, tail caps and mounts.
“Being modular allows you to have a system you can adapt to a lot of different scenarios instead of having to have a light for every single scenario,” said Reeve. “It could be in the output that you need to have modularity. And so instead of having to buy a light for every scenario, you can buy the system and just change the head for the different output.”
Another way the ARC 650 is adaptable is with its Dual Fuel capability. The main rechargeable 18650 battery offers 2 hours and 45 minutes of continuous operation and the ability to use CR123 batteries as a backup. “We also have a sleeve that goes inside the body of the light so if you are using the CR123As, it doesn’t rattle at all,” said Reeve. “It’s a sleeve that makes sure it’s a perfect fit.”
Extensive in-house testing ensures reliabiilty
Reeve says the most important feature of the ARC 650 is its reliability, backed by a lifetime warranty and extensive in-house testing. “Every light is individually tested before it goes out to ensure it has the output and color that we say it’s going to have,” said Reeve.
Notably, INFORCE has one of the few recoil machines in the country, which it uses to simulate recoil of all different types of firearms. Instead of testing 2,000 rounds of automatic fire on a range, the machine can do it much more rapidly. The in-house testing equipment is used not only for research but to test the lights to ensure they are holding up to the company’s standards.
“We can test [the lights] for different environments as well. So if we want to test it for a certain temperature or a certain humidity level, we can ensure that our lights are going to work,” said Reeve. “It should be a confidence booster to anyone that they hold up with recoil as well, because some lights don’t.”
A Gun & Gear Review that included “instructors who run low-light training courses and have strong opinions about weapon-light technique,” concluded “the ARC is a flat-out impressive weapon light that punches well above its price bracket.”
Between low-light training and the performance and affordability of INFORCE ARC weapon lights, departments can better prepare their officers for whatever low-light situations come their way.
For more information, visit INFORCE.
REFERENCES
[i] Joel Suss, Alexis Raushel. “A wallet or gun? Evaluating factors that affect anticipation ability in a use-of-force scenario.” J Police Crim Psych 34, 292–302 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-019-09329-2
[ii] Thomas J. Aveni. “Officer-involved shootings: What we didn’t know has hurt us.” Police Policy Studies Council. 2003. www.hptc-pro.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Officer-Involved-Shootings-What-We-Didnt-Know.pdf
[iii] P. Michel. “Visual perception in low-light levels: Implications for shooting incidents.” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Vol. 67, Issue 5. May 1998. www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/visual-perception-low-light-levels-implications-shooting-incidents
About INFORCE
From its headquarters in Mansfield, Texas, INFORCE engineers weapon lights designed for law enforcement, military professionals and responsible citizens who demand reliability under pressure. Made with intention and care, by people who know what these lights have to do in the field. Built in Texas.
