Company Name: Durendal LLC
Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona
Signature Product: DISTRACT-BALL
Website: http://durendal-llc.com/
Durendal LLC presents the DISTRACT-BALL, a state-of-the-art distraction device that utilizes a combination of high powered CREE LED lights and intense sound to distract and confuse hostile forces. The uses for this groundbreaking system are countless from combat room clearing, to chemical plant protection to school and residential safety and other civilian protection.
Where did your company name originate from?
Durendal is the symbol of strength and endurance.
What was the inspiration behind starting your company?
Our goal was to create a non-lethal device that would give some critical time to law enforcement personnel to observe and gain control inside dark environments, which are the most dangerous to enter.
Why do you believe your products are essential to the police community?
Our device gives law enforcement personnel time and opportunity to assess what is going on in an environment they have to enter and who is inside. Therefore, LE personnel are able to assess what they have to do next, either throw a Flash-Bang, deploy a TASER, simply go inside and help a person in need, etc. We also believe that our DISTRACT-BALL-LT, which only illuminates environments, can be a critical tool for fire departments; forget the flashlight, just throw in a DISTRACT-BALL to do the illuminating.
What has been the biggest challenge your company has faced?
Identifying the various testing parameters to simulate real-life situations facing officers every day.
What makes your company unique?
We are an Ariz.-based small company completely dedicated to making the lives of our LE personnel safer. Our product is 100% made in the USA; components are made and assembled in Southern Calif.
What do your customers like best about you and your products?
It is non-lethal and non-explosive. By deploying the DISTRACT-BALL, the subject does not suffer any permanent damage, they are simply temporarily blinded and distracted. It really works: those five to six seconds of distraction gives LE personnel critical time to make important decisions. To quote Lt. Frank O’Halloran, who just retired from the Scottsdale (Ariz.) PD: “I wish I had it available to me a few months ago, and I can’t wait for us to ensure all 17,000 American police departments and all 675,000 American police officers have it available to them”
What is the most rewarding part of serving the first responder community?
Make their law enforcement or first responder tasks safer. That’s all we care about.
Do you support any charitable organizations within public safety?
We do, one of the company’s founders is a decorated Marine, who was wounded in the Iraq War. Therefore, we support the Wounded Warrior Project as well as the Navy Seals Fund. Also we have several projects where we “adopt” PD/SWAT Teams, to whom we donate DISTRACT-BALL units.
Is there any fun fact or trivia that you’d like to share with our users about you or your company?
Yes, we have encountered few funny situations: the DISTRACT-BALL is quite loud, so I was “kindly” asked to quit demonstrating it during a recent gun show. Another time, we were demonstrating the DISTRACT-BALL to an Ariz. police academy and one SWAT officer stated that he wished our product could be a little louder. At that point another SWAT officer took my DISTRACT-BALL and asked me if he could go in another room with the SWAT team to test it. After ten minutes they came back and the officer said, “OK, we do not need it any louder!”. Yes, the DISTRACT-BALL is piercing and very annoying!
What’s next for your company? Any upcoming new projects or initiatives?
Our next project is the completion of our Infra-red DISTRACT-BALL, or DISTRACT-BALL-IR. We are also constantly testing to find better components and materials to improve the durability and performance of our products.
