Part 1 of 5: THE REALITY OF HANDCUFFING
Handcuffs are one of the most commonly used pieces of equipment in law enforcement, and one of the least trained once you graduate from your basic officer academy. They are also one of the easiest pieces of equipment to misunderstand. Handcuffs are temporary restraints. They are designed to restrict movement and assist officers in maintaining control of a subject. They are not intended to make escape or manipulation impossible.
The only permanent restraint is death. People escape handcuffs. They escape transport vehicles. They even escape prisons. The question, therefore, should not simply be whether a restraint can be defeated. Given enough opportunity, time, access to tools or a failure in procedure, virtually any restraint system can potentially be compromised.
The more important question is whether officers are doing everything reasonably available to minimize the opportunity for that to occur. That requires more than good equipment. A quality restraint, properly applied as part of a properly executed restraint process, minimizes the opportunity for a subject to defeat that restraint.
That process begins before the cuffs are applied and continues through transport. The five established best practices and concepts for restraints are:
STABILIZE → CONTROL → HANDCUFF → SEARCH → TRANSPORT
Beginning in part 2 we'll go into detail about each of these steps.
Daryell Harmon
Vice President, Sales and Training,
ASP, INC
Dallas PD Sergeant, Ret.
Defensive Tactics Instructor